COMMANDER BABBIT 


AND 

CONSUL TRIST, 

AT 

HAVANA. 

[Being an extract from a document recently printed by order of 
House of Representatives .] 








* 




. il 





/ 



CONTENTS. 


Consul Trist’s despatch No. 84. Havana, June 25, 1839, [with 9 enclosures! - 

Enclosure 1. Character of the prominent members of the confederacy at Havana 
by whom Commander Babbit has been made a tool of, [with 19 sub-enclosures! 
Sub-enclosures 1, 2, 3, 4, [Ferdinand Clark] 

Sub-enclosures 5, 6, [Dr. E. D. G. Bumstead] . 

Sub-enclosures 7, 8, 9. [Omitted.] 

Sub-enclosures 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, [Col. Oramel H. Throop] - 
Sub-enclosures 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. [Omitted.] 

Enclosure 2. Machinations of this confederacy illustrated—5 cases 

1. Case of the master of the brig Kremlin, [with 7 sub-enclosures] 

Sub-enclosure 1. Master of the brig Kremlin to Lieutenant Commandant 
McLaughlin. Punta prison, October 1, 1838 - 

Sub-enclosure 2. Consul Trist to Lieutenant Commandant McLaughlin 
Havana, October 3, 1838 - - - . _ . 

Sub-enclosure 3. Lieutenant Commandant McLaughlin to Consul Trist 
Havana, October 3, 1838 

Sub-enclosure 4. Lieutenant Commandant McLaughlin to Consul Trist. 
Havana, October 6, 1838, [with a note from Ferdinand Clark, enclosing 
a certificate signed by Clark, Bumstead, Howell, and Tomlinson] 
Sub-enclosure 5. Affidavit of Chauncey Fitch. Affidavit of Lieutenant 
Commandant McLaughlin ------ 

Sub-enclosure 6. Affidavit of Chauncey Fitch, produced by Ferdinand 
Clark - - - - . 

Sub-enclosure 7. Ferdinand Clark to Lieutenant Commandant McLaugh¬ 
lin. Havana, October 5, 1838 ------ 

2. Case of the crew of the ship William Engs - 

3. Case of the master of brig Sarah Ann Alley. [Omitted.] 

4. Case of the master of brig Thomas, of Havana. [Omitted.] 

5. Fourth of July celebration of last year, (1838,) [with 5 sub-enclosures] 

Sub-enclosure 1. Account of the celebration published in the Charleston 
Mercury of July 24, 1838 ------- 

Sub-enclosure 2. Consul Trist to George Knight, John Morland, and Ed¬ 
ward Spalding. Havana, June 19, 1839 - 
Sub-enclosure 3. Edward Spalding to Consul Trist. Havana, June 14, 1839 
Sib-enclosure 4. John Morland to Consul Trist. Havana, Jane 15, 1839 - 
Sub-enclosure 5. George Knight to Consul Trist. Havana, Juhe 20, 1839 
Enclosure 3. Statement of the case of brig Kremlin. (See Consul Trist’s de¬ 
spatches Nos. 62 and 140.) 

Enclosure 4. Statement of the case of the ship William Engs. (See page 294.) 
Enclosure 5. Statement of the case of the Sarah Ann Alley. [Omitted.] 

Enclosure 6. Statement of the case of brig Thomas, of Havana. [Omitted.] 
Enclosure 7. Statement of, with running commentary upon, what occurred be¬ 
tween the consul of the United States at Havana, and the commander of the 
United States ship Boston, in regard to the foregoing cases, and to the case 
of Purser Southall-, including a statement of the latter case, [with 15 sub-enclo¬ 
sures] -------- 

Sub-enclosure 1. Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. 

9, 1838, [with letters from Wendell and others] 

Sub-enclosure 2. Consul Trist to Commander Babbit. 

10, 1838 ------ 

Sub-enclosure 3. Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. 

11, 1839 . 

Sub-enclosure 4. Consul Trist to Commander Babbit. 

12,1839 ------ 

Sub-enclosure 5. Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. 

16, 1839 . 

Sub-enclosure 6, Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. 

5, 1839 . 

[ * Sub-enclosure 7. Consul Trist to Commander Babbit. 

6, 1839 . 

■Sub-enclosure 8. Consul Trist to the Captain General. 

6, 1839 . 

Sub-enclosure 9. Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. 

1839 . 


Page. 


Havana, December 
Havana, December 
Havana, January 
Havana, January 
Havana, January 
Havana, February 
Havana, February 
Havana, February 
Havana, April 4, 


7 

16,17 
18,19 


- 20—25 


26 

26 


27 

28 
28 


29 

30 

31 


31 

32 


32 

35 


38 

38 

39 
39 


40 

61 

64 

65 

66 
66 
67 

69 

70 

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IV 


CONTENTS. 


Page. 

Sub-enclosure 10. Consul Trist to Commander Babbit. Havana, April 4, 

1839 .: 5 - - 72 

Sub-enclosure 11. Commander Babbit to Consul Trist. Havana, April 11, 

1839 . 72 

Sub-enclosure 12. Captain General to Consul Trist, on the case of Purser 
Southall. Havana, March 19, 1839. [Spanish original omitted.] 

Sub-enclosure 13. Captain General to Consul Trist, on the case of Purser 
Southall. Havana, April 8, 1839. [Spanish original omitted] 

Sub-enclosure 14. Translation of sub-enclosures 12 and 13 - - - 74 

Sub-enclosure 15. Diagram explanatory of Purser Southall’s affray with 
with the sentinel .----..-80 
Enclosure 8. Heads of inquiry presented by the case between the consul of the 
United States at Havana, and the commander of the United States ship Boston. 
[Omitted.] 

Enclosure 9. Lists of witnesses to be examined. [Omitted.] 


[Despatch No. 84.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana, June 25, 1839. 

Sir : To judge from newspapers which reached here some weeks ago 
from New York, the commander of the United States ship Boston, and other 
instruments of the confederacy at this place, of which he is the most con¬ 
spicuous tool, must, long ere this, have laid their respective budgets before 
the Government. So far back as the month of January, it had been ap¬ 
prized of my purpose to appeal to its justice in regard to the course pursued 
here by that officer ; and I have reason to believe that a knowledge of this 
step on my part, and the feeling of desperation necessarily consequent 
thereon, in one whose consciousness, torpid as it is, is still not so actually 
dead as to enable him to be insensible to the fact that his doings, and the 
condition whereof they were but manifestations, will not bear inquiry, has 
proved the cause of greater eagerness and precipitation, as well as reckless¬ 
ness, on the part both of himself and those, official or non-official, impli¬ 
cated in his acts, and the habitual state of things out of which these naturally 
arose. 

The hurry exhibited by him to steal a march upon truth, in the hope 
(vain one !) to preoccupy the public mind—the only straw which his dis¬ 
mal horizon presents for him to clutch at—has added to the regret occasion¬ 
ed by the succession of mishaps (the last of which has been the necessity 
of placing myself for two or three weeks under the control of my physi¬ 
cian, to avoid a threatened attack of fever) that have occurred to delay the 
transmission, on my part, of the materials requisite to the action of the 
Government upon the disgusting subject thus forced upon its consideration. 

Even at this late hour, a part only of those materials is ready, as will be 
perceived upon comparing with the subjoined list the enclosures now sent. 
The rest will follow as soon as possible. That list, made out some months 
ago, has constituted the ground-plan, with reference to which the materials 
have been collected and arranged. Serving, as it does, to explain the rela¬ 
tive bearings of the various heads under which it has appeared advisable to 
arrange those materials, that list is here preserved, as are also the explana¬ 
tory remarks whereby it was originally prefaced. They are as follows : 

The case between Commander Babbit and myself is one of a long series 
(or net-work rather) of events—beginning, I may say, at the moment of my 
taking charge of this office—so knotted together, and dependent the one 
upon the other, that, to thoroughly understand the origin and merits of any 
one mesh, would require the entire net to be spread out, and all the threads 
belonging to that mesh to be traced down from the points where they ori¬ 
ginated. This would be nothing short of a minutely detailed history of the 
whole course of events, from the day on which I first set foot in this con¬ 
sulate. It is an impossibility. 

To a certain extent, however, a labor of this kind is absolutely indispen¬ 
sable to an even tolerable understanding of the nature of the case which 


6 


Commander Babbit has permitted himself to be made the instrument for 
forcing upon the consideration of the Government. 

This task I will endeavor to perform in such a way as to simplify the sub¬ 
ject as far as practicable, and present a load of drudgery as small as can be 
to those by whom that consideration must be given. 

The plan which seems best adapted to this object is, instead of one con¬ 
tinuous and overgrown narrative, with numberless references, to present a 
series of shorter and distinct statements, in the order prescribed by the 
bearing of the subject matter upon that which it is the end of the whole to 
afford an understanding of. 

These statements will be found enclosed. They are— 

Enclosure No. 1.—Character of the prominent members of the confed¬ 
eracy at Havana, by whom Commander Babbit has been made a tool of. 
I. Ferdinand Clark. II. Dr. E. D. G. Bumstead. III. (Omitted.) IV. 
Col. Oramel H. Throop. V. (Omitted.) VI. (Omitted.) 

Enclosure No. 2.—Machinations of this confederacy illustrated. Case of 
the master of the brig Kremlin ; of the crew of the ship William Engs ; of 
the master of the brig Sarah Ann Alley ; of the master of the brig Thomas, 
of Havana; fourth of July celebration of last year. 

Enclosure No. 3.-—Statement of the case of the brig Kremlin. 

Enclosure No. 4.—Statement of the case of the ship William Engs. 

Enclosure No. 5.—Statement of the case of the Sarah Ann Alley. 

Enclosure No. 6.—Statement of the case of the brig Thomas, of Havana. 

Enclosure No. 7.—Statement of, with running commentary upon, what 
occurred between the consul of the United States at Havana, and the com¬ 
mander of the United States ship Boston, in regard to the foregoing cases, 
and to the case of Purser Southall; including a statement of the latter 
case. 

Enclosure No. 8'.—Heads of inquiry presented by the case between the 
consul of the United States at Havana and the commander of the United 
States ship Boston ; a leading object being to ascertain the degree of reli¬ 
ance due to the judgment formed by said" commander in regard to the offi¬ 
cial conduct and general deportment of said consul; and, as a means to 
such ascertainment, to eviscerate the truth respecting the habits and con¬ 
dition of said commander, and his consequent fitness, intellectual and moral, 
to judge justly on such a subject. 

Enclosure No. 9.—Lists of witnesses to be examined ; as many of them 
as can be procured, or as it may be deemed necessary to examine. 

List No. 1.—The Navy Register—officers' of the American navv gen- 
erally. y 

List No. 2.—Officers and crew of the United States ship Boston, durinof 
the time that Commander Babbit held the command. 

List No. 3.—Officers attached to any vessel of the West India squadron, 
during the time that Commander Babbit held the command of the Boston. 

List No. 4.—Officers of the United States schooner Wave, during the pe¬ 
riod from October, 1838, to May, 1839. 

List No. 5.—American merchants resident at Havana. 

List No. 6:—British merchants resident at Havana. 

List No. 7.—French merchants resident at Havana. 

List No. 8.—German merchants resident at Havana. 

List No. 9.—Visiters, (chiefly from the United States,) taken from the 
book of the Mansion-House, the first hotel at Havana, from December, 
1838, to March, 1839. 


7 


List No. 10.—Officers attached to Her Britannic Majesty’s ships of the 
line Edinburgh and Cornwallis, or to any other vessel of the British navy 
that visited Havana from December, 1838, to March, 1839. (names of the 
vessels and commanders given.) 

List No. 11.—Officers attached to any vessel of the French navy that 
visited Havana from December, 1838, to March, 1839, (names of the vessels 
and commanders given.) 

List No. 12.—Masters, mates, and seamen, of the merchant vessels of the 
United States that visited Havana from November, 1838, to the end of 
1 April, 1839. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 


Hon. John Forsyth, 

Secretary of State. 


[Enclosure No. 1.] 

Character of the prominent members of the confederacy at Havana , by 
whom Commander Babbit has been made a tool of—Relations in 
which they severally stand towards the consul. 

I. Ferdinand Clark.— During the first weeks of my residence here, I 
heard this name, which never, to my recollection, has been uttered in my 
presence, be the company who they might, without exciting a general 
laugh or smile, and awakening the expectation (which has seldom been 
disappointed) of some piece of roguery, curious only for its extreme bare¬ 
facedness, and the renewed wonder associated with it, how any one having 
any business-connexion with Havana could be ignorant of the character of 
Ferdinand Clark ! or, knowing it, could venture to have any thing to do 
with him. At the time of my coming here, (how long before, I have never 
taken the trouble to inquire,) the name was a by-word; and the individual 
was, so far as American merchants were concerned, in Coventry ; a Coven¬ 
try not concerted , but, so flagrant was the necessity, spontaneous on the 
part of each. Never have I seen him spoken with by any resident Ameri¬ 
can merchant; his associates consisting exclusively of.men of blasted char¬ 
acter, or of strangers who have not yet found him out. 

This personage was, at the time of my arrival here, in the United States: 
whither, on the appearance of the cholera, he had fled suddenly and in 
great affright; leaving those worldly goods, which the dear of death alone 
was potent enough to loosen his clinging to, in the hands of an English 
merchant, Mr. James Norman, whose civilities on my arrival caused me to 
be an occasional visiter of his family, subsequently to, as well as before, the 
return of Clark. Thus I formed a slight acquaintance with the latter. 

Upon my return, early in 1836, from a visit to our country, Mr. Clark 
was among the earliest to call upon me; and to this calf succeeded a note 
inviting me to dinner the same day. (Sub-enclosure No. 1.) 

Being at the time restricted to my lodgings by my physician, the invita¬ 
tion was declined on that ground. Had it not chanced to'exist,T should 
have been under the necessity of placing my refusal upon a less definite 
one : for, although (as it is needless to say to any one acquainted with me) 
I felt no disposition to wound the man’s feelings, yet it comported not at all 
with my sense of what was due, either to the character of consul of the 
United States, of to my personal standing, to recognise Mr. Clark and his 
associates as fit companions for me. 


8 


Of the propriety of such a feeling on my part, he, obtuse as he is in re¬ 
gard to every consideration but money-making, must have had a lurking- 
consciousness, which it did not require much goading to prick into activity; 
for, but a very few days elapsed before 1 heard of remarks of his, (repeated 
among other topics for merriment, daily afforded by him,) showing that his 
vulgar malignity had been awakened against me; and, considering that 
neither the man, nor his rogueries, nor any thing he could say or do with 
regard to me, ever was the subject of my thoughts for a single second of 
time, except when thus forced upon them, nor ever of an inquiry from me, 
indications of the activity which I afforded his tongue came under my no¬ 
tice with remarkable frequency. 

In this way matters went on, until an event which gave a new spur to 
his disregarded hate. 

While closely engaged in writing one day in the month of March of the 
same year, I heard a muttering at my elbow, and, upon looking up, per¬ 
ceived that it came from a negro, holding out some loose papers, and at¬ 
tempting to deliver a message. The papers showed that the “ Don Fer¬ 
nando” from whom this Mercury came, was Mr. Ferdinand Clark. Upon 
the return of the vice-consul, whose momentary absence from my outer 
office had been the cause of this visit being received by me, I mentioned 
the improper medium of communication used by Mr. Clark, and learned that 
it was but a repetition of what had happened a day or two before. There¬ 
upon, remarking that Mr. Clark would as soon have thought of walking 
across the Plaza de Armas on his head, as to communicate thus with any 
Spanish public officer, I gave the vice-consul a pointed instruction not to 
permit any one whatever to communicate with the consulate in this mode; 
and should it be attempted, to say that it was the rule of the office not to 
receive messages through slaves; and that if a merchant could not himself 
come to the office, he must either send a clerk or write a note. No other 
individual, indeed, has ever thought of acting otherwise. 

[I may here be allowed to remark, that if there be upon earth a man less 
inclined than I am, by natural disposition and settled habits of feeling and 
of thought, to attach importance to formal observances, or to care for them 
with regard to himself, I am yet to meet with him. But, independently of 
the duty of repressing the disposition evinced in this particular instance to 
show disrespect to the office, it was indispensable, with a view to the public 
estimation in which it should be held among this most punctilious of na¬ 
tions, that some degree of decorum should be maintained with regard to it.] 

Next day, the vice-consul having again stepped out, I was again inter¬ 
rupted, under precisely the same circumstances, by Mr. Clark in person, 
who inquired whether the papers which he had sent yesterday were ready! 
Having desired him to take a seat, and await the return of the vice-consul, 
who would be back in a moment, and would be able to tell him whether 
his papers were ready, or whether they required any explanations from him 
before they could be acted upon, I added that I would use the opportunity 
to say myself what I had instructed the vice consul to tell him—that I con¬ 
sidered the mode he had adopted for communicating with the consulate to 
be an improper one; and I had instructed the vice-consul not to allow its 
repetition, and to attend to no business that should be presented to the 
office, otherwise than by the merchant in person, by a clerk, or by letter. 
After sitting a minute or two, looking very foolish, he arose, took his hat. 
and, without uttering a syllable, bolted out of the office. 


9 


A day or two after, I received a note, (sub-enclosure No. 2,) the writer of 
which was too notorious as a creature of Clark’s, and as the most active of 
his instruments against me, to admit a doubt that it was part of the froth 
of the rage excited by the rebuke he had placed me under the necessity of 
giving him. That writer was Dr. Bumstead, the person next to be noticed 
in this paper. 

Time rolled on; a week seldom passing without some indication, in one 
shape or another, of the activity of this man’s malice against me. These, 
although never inquired after, nor an object of curiosity with me in any 
J way, came to my knowledge the more frequently, from the fact, that being, 
on account of the remarkable compound of roguery, ignorance, and stupid¬ 
ity presented by his character, a daily laughingstock to the whole English- 
speaking population of the place, especially to the British and German 
residents, (the more considerate among his own countrymen seldom men¬ 
tioning his name, because they were ashamed of him,) his doings and say¬ 
ings constituted no inconsiderable part of the daily stock of counting-house 
small news. The things thus heard, even when they bore upon myself, 
seldom received any other notice from me than the smile of mingled pity 
and contempt which they awakened. It will readily occur that my memo¬ 
ry has not been very tenacious of them. Their general character, how¬ 
ever, was in perfect keeping with his; and they all tended to the fulfilment 
of his avowed purpose to “have me removed an effect which (not having 
the remotest conception of the nature and properties of weight o) character) 
he evidently conceived that any senseless clamor, however stupid the false¬ 
hoods on which it rested, was adequate to the production of, against any 
mere “consul.” 

This state of things had continued for upwards of two years, when the 
incident occurred which will now be mentioned. No American, or English¬ 
man, or German, who has resided long enough at Havana to know any 
thing of the foreign residents here, but will be ready to say that the whole 
thing, so far as it goes, is as exactly of a piece with Clark’s character, as a 
yard of calico is with the rest of the pattern. 

Sub-enclosure No. 3 is a note addressed by Clark to the vice-consul on 
the 20th of June, 1838, a few weeks only before the time when the cases 
of the seamen of the ship William Engs, “ tyrannized over by the consul to 
favor the captain,” and of the captain of the brig Kremlin, (Wendell,) 
“ tyrannized over by the consul to favor a drunken mate,” presented such 
inviting fields for the display of Clark philanthropy. When, through the 
mere force of habit, this seemingly worthless half-sheet of paper was 
endorsed by me, and laid by, instead of being thrown upon the floor to be 
swept next morning into the kennel, I had riot the remotest conception of 
its future importance to the task (the necessity of which was equally far 
from my imagination) of demonstrating this man’s character. It will be seen 
that already, before the Wendell and William Engs trumps fell into his hands, 
he deemed his game so sure, that he could not forbear the opportunity of put¬ 
ting his exultation upon paper for my eye, lest his wharf talk should have 
failed to reach my ear. In this note, Clark refers to my “observations to” him, 
“ well knbwn to” Mr. Smith. The only occurrence to which this could 
relate was that above narrated. I had, on that occasion, shown him the 
civility to invite him to a seat, which he took; and the only thing offensive 
in what I said to him, consisted in the mere implied opinion, which it could 
not but involve, that his course had been an impertinent one. I had no 


10 


doubt, indeed, that it had been suggested by his disposition to show me dis¬ 
respect. As to their being “ known” to Mr. Smith, they probably would 
not have occurred but for his momentary absence. He speaks also of other 
observations of mine, known to him “ from time to time.” The endless 
effusions of his stupid malignity against myself scarcely ever elicited, when 
mentioned to me, any thing but a smile. But occasions had occurred in my 
office, when mention was made by the sufferers therefrom, of the game 
playing between him and Dr. Bumstead, to force the latter upon American 
mariners as a medical practitioner, in which I had pronounced it outrage¬ 
ous that they should be thus made victims of. 

Sub-enclosure No. 4 presents the sequel to the “ commission” story, thus 
begun. It is a letter from Mr. Aylwin, a Boston lawyer, accompanied with, 
a copy of a certain document transmitted by Clark to that place. 

The second part of this document bears the signatures of two « merchants , 
residents in this city.” They are, I am told, both clerks in the employ of 
Mr. Ferdinand Clark. One of them, Negrete, I know to be so. 

These two “ merchants” certify to the high respectability of the three 
persons whose signatures are appended to the first part of the document. 
These three names require no other vouchers than the facts which will be 
found in the documents accompanying this communication. The relations 
in which their bearers stand towards Clark on the one hand, and myself 
on the other, are there made manifest. Here, they all three certify that they 
possess a knowledge of my conduct towards Clark—a knowledge of my 
character sufficient to justify a firm, belief that I would, in executing a 
commission to take testimony , avail myself of any opportunity to injure 
Clark! 

Now, not one of the three ever associated with me, or with any person 
that ever associated with me. Throop, so far as I know, has, to this day, 
never so much as heard the sound of my voice ; Bumstead has heard it on 
but two occasions in his life ; Wendell on but four. On neither of these 
occasions had a syllable passed concerning Clark, or having the remotest 
bearing upon him. One ground for the belief expressed by them, they did 
possess. It consisted of their knowledge—intimate, daily, hourly knowl¬ 
edge —of Clark’s bitter hate, and unceasing machinations against me; of 
their knowledge that I could not but be aware of them; and of their 
knowledge of themselves, which rendered it, in their opinion, impossible 
that any man standing in such a relation toward another could be other¬ 
wise than his bitter and active enemy, or do otherwise than avail himself 
of any opportunity to injure him. This belief, doubtless, came from their 
inmost soul; but fc their self-knowledge was the only basis it could possibly 
have to rest upon. Their profession of belief is true as truth itself; all 
else in their certificate, regarding me, is the very quintessence of falsehood. 
It could not by any possibility have been otherwise. Since the occurrence 
in my office above stated, I had never had any “ conduct” of any kind to 
pursue towards Clark. Unless a smile, occasionally, on hearing of his 
rogueries, or of his abuse and machinations against me,—and beyond this, 
the most passive indifference,-— unless behaving as if no such person as 
Clark was in existence can be called u conduct” towards him, there was no 
conduct of mine, with regard to him, for any human being, however in¬ 
timate with me, to know about. Like every other foreign resident in Ha¬ 
vana, I had the conviction forced upon me, that he was one of the arrantest 
knaves in existence ; but this was matter of belief, not conduct. And, sup- 


1 ] 


posing I had been ever so free in expressing it, these certifiers could not 
possibly have known any thing on the subject; for, as I said before, neither 
of them ever associated with me, or with any person who ever did associate 
with me. 

II. E. D. G. Bumstead, M. D.—One or two days after my arrival at 
Havana, this person introduced himself as an “American citizen” and 
medical practitioner, who would be happy to give to myself, or to sailors 
under my charge, the benefit of his skill. But a very short time was re¬ 
quisite to make me aware that this was, if possible, a still more notorious 
character than Ferdinand Clark, (who, as 1 afterwards discovered, was his 
sworn friend and bosom companion;) that the infamy attached to it was as 
deep as could result from a man’s dividing his whole time between brothels 
and grog-shops; seeking practice by the most disreputable stratagems, 
butchering those upon whom his artifices palmed, or his brazen impudence 
forced him; and ever capping the climax by the most extortionate charges, 
(many times higher than those of the first physicians of the place,) to 
which his victims, or those charged with the settlement of their 'post obit 
affairs, had to submit, or embrace the alternative of a lawsuit held out in 
terrorem. 

As a sample of this man’s daily career, I will here anticipate, by refer¬ 
ring to the letter (sub-enclosure No. 5) addressed to me by Captain H. Hol- 
dane, jr., of the packet ship “ St. Thomas,” of New York, which visited this 
port in the fall of 1838. Upon Captain H.’s coming to the office for his 
papers, on the eve of his departure, being struck with his wretched appear¬ 
ance, I expressed regret at seeing him look so badly; and he replied, by 
gasping out, «Oh, sir, that wretch Bumstead !” I answered, “I am sorry 
for you ; but you had no right to expect any thing else from putting your¬ 
self into the hands of such a man.” He then gave me the explanation, 
that he was a stranger in the place. &c.—exactly what I had heard times 
without number before, only in some respects not so bad. After listening 
to the details, deeming it desirable to have at least one of these histories 
upon paper, 1 requested Captain H., so soon as he should recover suffi¬ 
ciently, to commit them to writing. His promise to do so was fulfilled 
during his voyage to New York, whence the letter was brought to me by 
the captain of another of the packet-ships of that port. 

One incident which was narrated to me by an American merchant (a 
gentleman of the highest character) will serve to convey some idea of the 
impression made by this doctor upon all decent men with whom he came 
in contact: An American ship-master being here some years ago, at the 
boarding-house of Miss Lyon, (the favorite resort, and a highly appropriate 
one, for such as Bumstead,) complained one day of being indisposed, 
and was advised to consult this doctor. “ No, sir,” said he to his adviser, 
“ I have not lived to my time of life to ask medical aid of a doctor who 
keeps a gin bottle on his table for an hour glass .” 

In regard to the utter unfitness of any such character for the practice of 
medicine, upon this theatre particularly, it is only necessary to advert to 
the most distinguishing peculiarity of the treatment required by the fever, 
which is almost the sole disease of the climate. That peculiarity consists 
in the vital importance of a frequent and close watching of symptoms. 
Without this, the attendance of even the most highly qualified physician 
would be as likely to do harm as good. Often is the course of the disease 
either turned or fixed to a fatal issue within the first twenty-four hours— 


12 


nay, the first six hours; and it scarcely ever happens that this does not 
take place within three days. In so rapid a career, every instant counts; 
every minute that the fatal symptoms can be staved off adds incalculably 
to the chances of the patient, by bringing him nearer to the point of time 
beyond which, by the laws of the disease, there will be nothing to fear. A 
patient with the yellow fever may be likened to a ship in the midst of peril¬ 
ous breakers, which she must soon either be shattered upon, or be entirely 
clear of; the circumstances, too, being such, that, with a quick eye and 
steady hand at the helm, her escape is highly probable; whilst, without 
these, the merest chance alone can save her. 

Of all diseases, then, it is that in which what may, in contradistinction 
to treatment by symptoms be termed mechanical practice, is the least toler¬ 
able. And if this be true of mechanical practice in general, even though 
its tendency be, to the utmost possible extent, favorably modified by intelli¬ 
gence, information, and humanity in the practitioner, what must be its force 
in relation to a practice of that character when pursued by a wretch whose 
heart has been festering in dissoluteness and villany, in. their most loath¬ 
some mixtures, until not a fibre of it responds to the cry of humanity ! 
And of this sort is —notoriously is—the individual of whom I now speak; 
who (without a care for, without a thought upon, any thing but the field 
for extortion presented by the vessel upon whose deck the basest artifices 
have procured him an invitation; or, these falling, the most brazen effront¬ 
ery has carried him unbidden) bleeds and calomels all alike, regardless of 
constitution or of age, or of any thing except the number of heads upon 
which to bring in his treble or quadruple charges against the vessel! 

What the consequences must have been to our poor sailors need not be 
told. Better for them, far, could they but have been conveyed to the foot 
of a palm-tree in the fields, and there left to the efforts of nature. Such 
would be my choice for my own child, were there no escape from the alter¬ 
native. A fair idea of the interest felt by this practitioner in his patients, 
and the watchfulness extended to them, is afforded by the case (mentioned 
in one of my communications some years ago) of poor young Finn, who 
had been left here by his brother, (the famous glass-blower,) to pack up 
their ware and follow him back to the United States. On their arrival 
here, their evil star had led them to consign themselves to Ferdinand 
Clark, and, as a consequence, to put up at the boarding-house of Miss 
Lyon, which was the home of Dr. Bumstead. Into his hands, therefore, 
fell the younger Finn, upon being attacked with the fever. A day or two 
after, Mr. Norman, the partner of Ferdinand Clark, went to see the patient, 
and, upon inquiring of Dr. Bumstead how he was, received the assurance, 
given with perfect nonchalance, that he was doing very well. No sooner, 
however, had Mr. N. set eye upon him, than he' saw the stamp of death 
upon his face; and another physician being called in consultation—Bum¬ 
stead reluctantly consenting—he confirmed the inference derived by Mr. 
Norman from the appearances observed by him in other cases of fever, by 
pronouncing the patient to be within two or three hours of his death ; which 
took place accordingly. 

The patient here was comparatively a “ person of distinction,” and inhab¬ 
iting the same house, under the very eye of his doctor ! What, then, must 
have been his solicitude and knowledge concerning a poor sailor, languish¬ 
ing in the dark and suffocating forecastle of a ship or schooner ? And this 
was the medical attendant who was actuallyjforceo? upon the vessels which 


13 


came, or were by their masters, consigned to Ferdinand Clark! as I was 
informed by his partner, Mr. Norman, who, dependent as his pecuniary 
circumstances rendered him, had within him a spark of humanity to kindle 
at the contemplation of such atrocity. And this, too, was at the time 
when, if he ever had employed Bumstead on his own precious person, he 
had ceased to do so ; and another physician was summoned at every indi¬ 
cation of a finger-ache : a circumstance which afforded no small support to 
the presumption, resulting from Clark’s well-earned fame, that this was one 
of his numerous money-making contrivances, whereby part of every dollar 
| disbursed by him as a merchant in paying ships’ bills for doctor’s attend¬ 
ance, found its way back into his special pocket, as the silent partner in the 
trade driven by Dr. Bumstead. 

It was not until I had resided some time in Havana that I was honored 
with a second visit from Dr. Bumstead. This was brought about in the 
following way: Among the bills presented at the consulate by Mr. Daniel 
Warren, a sailor-landlord, for the expenses of some seamen under my 
charge, was one for medical services rendered by Dr. B. This, I instructed 
the vice-consul not to pay, on the ground that I had not authorized his em¬ 
ployment ; and upon Warren’s calling to receive his pay, he was sent in to 
me, where, besides a reprimand for what he had done, he received a peremp¬ 
tory order never to deviate from what I had supposed he knew to be my 
rule in regard to this matter—to employ for sailors the same medical at¬ 
tendant that 1 did for myself. Then followed a visit from Dr. Bumstead, 
who was civilly received, and, without any special reference to himself, in¬ 
formed of the rule I deemed it my duty to be governed by, and that I could 
not pay for any medical attendance unauthorized by me. He pleaded ig¬ 
norance of my rule; whereupon, cautioning him to bear it in mind for the 
future, I caused his bill to be paid. It went as one of the vouchers to my 
account for that term. 

The man’s character rendered it indubitable, that, having failed to palm, 
this was a trick to force himself upon the consul, and thereby secure a 
ground for proclaiming himself to every stranger from our country as the 
chosen physician of the consulate; which, according to the ideas of some 
respecting the injunctions of patriotism, he had an indefeasible claim to be, 
in consequence of his being an American. Had I allowed myself to be 
governed by such lofty views of consular duty, and given him employment 
upon such unimportant beings as sailors, I might have chosen for myself 
any medical attendant I pleased, and escaped all outcry on this score, about 
my want of “ friendly feeling towards my countrymen.” 

Nothing further occurred between us until the 18th of March, 1836, 
when 1 received the note already referred to in my notice of Ferdinand 
Clark. 

Of this note I took no notice whatever; although the thought arose of 
communicating it to the Captain General, (Tacon,) who, upon the strength of 
it, and of the information he could not have failed to receive in regard to 
the writer’s character and mode of life, from any American residenf of re¬ 
spectability, would, I felt certain, order him out of the island. This, I 
knew, would be a real service to my countrymen: to the transient, in the 
removal of a dangerous enemy to their lives and purses; to the resident, in 
that of an eyesore to all except the few belonging to his own class. It 
was, therefore, not without hesitation and regret, (often afterwards renew¬ 
ed,) that, yielding to the consideration that the matter was, upon its face, 
personal to myself, I forbore to take any notice of it. 


14 


After my return, in November, 1836, from my last visit to our country, 
whither I had gone in quest of my family, I heard, as a rumor, (into the 
truth of which I never took the trouble to inquire,) that he had gone with 
a number of slaves to Texas; where, it was understood, he had purchased 
property. The riddance proved, however, but very temporary. In the 
course of a few months I learned that he was again at work here, more 
active than ever ; that if an American vessel entered port with any one 
sick on board, he was at the patient’s elbow before there could be any com¬ 
munication with either the consignee or the consulate, to ask advice on 
the subject, (which showed that he had some subordinate in the Govern¬ 
ment boarding-boats in his pay, to report to him every such interesting 
circumstance,) and that he had taken a stand and hoisted a conspicuous 
sign at a spot which every stranger must pass on his way from the land¬ 
ing-stairs into the city. Here, if he could not make a doctor’s prize of 
every “American citizen” to whom his patriotism extended the right hand 
of fellowship, he was pretty sure of accomplishing the next best thing, by 
drowning the stranger’s common sense, if of a favorable nature, in a del¬ 
uge of lies about “our consul;” (the sluice being generally opened by the 
stranger himself inquiring the way to the consulate,) and thereby enlisting 
a crusader under the banner, of which Fernando Clark is the Peter and 
Dr. Bumstead the Walter. 

Had “our consul” been the only sufferer in the game, it would have 
continued unnoticed by him, until stopped through mere exhaustion on 
the part of the champions. But its operation upon the class of men spe¬ 
cially under my guardianship determined me, at length, to make an effort 
in their behalf: the consequences of which could not make matters worse, 
and might possibly end in his expulsion. ****** 

Accordingly, after verbally informing the Captain General of the fact 
that this man was, in open defiance of the law, practising medicine here, 
to the great detriment of our mariners, I addressed to him my letter, Sep¬ 
tember the 14th, 1837, (sub-enclosure No. 6,) the effect of which was to 
force upon the attention of the medical authorities a fact which they would 
not have overlooked for a single week, had the practice which this man 
illegally filched from them (the greater part, however, being, it is true, 
created by his own ingenuity) been deemed worthy of attention from those 
charged with caring for the bodily health of Christians , as the Queen’s 
lieges are termed, in contradistinction to « Judeos ,” (Jews,) the general de¬ 
signation for all who do not belong to the Holy Apostolic Church. But, 
with regard to these “ Jewish dogs” of American sailors, or consumptive 
skeletons, exhaling pestilence, and to touch whom is death, (belief in the 
contagiousness of consumption is universal here, and active to a degree 
most pitiable when contemplated in one pretending to be a physician,) no 
royal licentiate but must sicken at the bare thought of being called to one 
of them, and must feel positively indebted to any person who will spare 
him the trouble of despatching them. 

[It may be proper to explain that this letter was marked confidential, in 
order that it might not be communicated to the medical authorities as the 
ground-work of their proceedings. It was proper that an official commu¬ 
nication from me should exist, as a basis for the Captain General’s order 
that the matter should be looked into. On the other hand, it was proper 
that the inquiry should arise from a mere naked order, unaccompanied by 
the particulars which I deemed it necessary to enter into, to impress upon 


15 


the Captain General the importance of the subject, and its strong title to 
his attention. I knew that, so soon as any measures should be taken, my 
letter would become known to any person who might choose to inquire of 
the subordinate officers of the Government into their origin. But this I 
cared nothing about.] ’ 

In consequence of my communication, the Captain General took the 
steps for compelling the attention of the proper authorities to the subject. 
That this had been done, I learned shortly after; and heard nothing further 
in regard to the matter, except the current report that proceedings had been 
instituted against Bumstead for practising contrary to law. In the Guia 
de For aster os (an annual official publication containing the names of all 
Government officers and members of corporations) for the ensuing year, 
E. D. G. Bumstead appeared on the list of licensed physicians. * * * * 

I will close my notice of this individual by stating, that, according to in¬ 
formation recently communicated to me, he is literally a “ scape gallows.” 
On various occasions it had been mentioned at the consulate, by American 
ship-masters, that the circumstances under which he left Surinam would, 
if known, sink him to still lower ground than that occupied by him here. 
The character attaching to his career here , as known to all except mere 
strangers, being already but too infamous; and the only point connected 
with it, worthy of a moment’s attention from any decent man, being, not to 
increase the depth of that infamy, but to protect strangers from the prac¬ 
tices which had conduced to it, I never deemed it worth my while to so 
much as ask what were the circumstances referred to in these allusions to 
his Surinam career. Recently, however, extrinsic causes having attached 
to this man’s character, in its bearings upon myself, officially, an import¬ 
ance which alone it could never have acquired, I have availed myself of an 
opportunity to learn from a source, in every respect above question, what 
had been the circumstances of his quitting Surinam. 

He was banished by sentence of court: escaping the gallows solely 
through a doubt created by the testimony of experts , called in to prove 
that the after treatment of his victim had been injudicious. This circum¬ 
stance so far puzzled the jury as to cause them to bring in, instead of the 
verdict which would have hung him, one which occasioned his banish¬ 
ment only. He had tied up a negro slave or servant of his by the arms, 
and left him in that condition all night. Mortification ensued. Doctor 
Bumstead was committed to prison, and tried for his life, which was saved 
only by testimony to injudiciousness in the after treatment; which testimo¬ 
ny was given by two surgeons—one American, the other Dutch. 

III. (Omitted.) 

IV. Colonel Oramel H. Throop. —Some time in the year 1837, (if 
my memory serves,) I saw in the newspapers of this place, as several years 
before 1 had seen in those of Washington, the advertisement of “O. H. 
Throop , engraver .” I knew the man by sight; but had never heard the 
sound of his voice, nor had he, I believe, ever heard mine. 

A month or two after this, a merchant at the head of one of the great 
houses of Havana (Charles Drake & Co.) inquired of me, in a very signifi¬ 
cant manner, if I was acquainted with “ Colonel Throop?” and upon an¬ 
swering in the negative, I was told of a swindling trick he had partly ac¬ 
complished at their expense, by an order for some costly apparatus, which, 
once imported and fairly upon their hands , he had endeavored to relieve 
them of, in exchange for his promises, instead of the money which they 
had a right to expect. 


16 


This “ colonel” was reported to have acquired his rank in virtue of cer¬ 
tain brilliant exploits in the Florida war; and he very soon attracted all 
eyes here, as the oratorical pillar of the par-excellence 11 American citizen” 
party at Havana; from whose lips chiefly, in the great coffee-house where 
ship-masters of all nations do congregate, these mariners daily obtained the 
information that the “ American consul is the damnedest rascal on earth.” 
During the last summer, when the Wendell case afforded such favorable 
incitement to “ patriotism,” he volunteered as a missionary to Washington, 
in time for the meeting of Congress, bearer of a memorial with “ five hun¬ 
dred signatures,” which should produce my instant removal. 1 supposed 
him still here, when I learned, a week or two since from Lieutenant Com¬ 
mandant McLaughlin, of the United States schooner Wave, that he had 
been fallen in with by the officers of that vessel upon one of the Florida 
Keys: a route to Washington, the selection of which creates a strong pre¬ 
sumption that he left here without taking out the passport required by law; 
which passport is based upon a fianza> or security, for any debts the 
voyager may prove to have left behind. For a fair specimen of his char¬ 
acter, see the accompanying documents. (Sub-enclosures 10,11,12,13,14.) 

V. (Omitted.) 

YI. (Omitted.) 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 1.] 

Mr. Ferd. Clark 

Presents his compliments to N. P. Trist Esqr. and will be happy his 
company at Dinner 3 o’clock. 6 feby 1836. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 2.] 

Havana, March 17, 1836. 

Sir : Understanding that you have endeavored to stigmatise my charac¬ 
ter, by asserting that I was a quack, and did not possess a regular diploma,* 
my sense of honor places me under the necessity of demanding of you 
whether you ever made use of such expressions. 

E. D. G. BUMSTEAD, M. D., 

At Mrs. LyovUs boarding-house. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 3.] 

John A. Smith Esqre 

Vice-Consul. 

Dear Sir, 

I am sorry to hear of your indisposition. I have lately received a 
Commission from the District Court, Massachusetts, to be executed by 
you or Mr. Trist; and, no other person being named, and in con¬ 
sequence of your indisposition, and Mr. Trist’s observations to me, well 
known to you, 1 am at this moment of opinion that if you cannot attend to 


* No such assertion had ever been made by me; for I had understood him to be a medical 
graduate in the States. But, on the occasions (which were very frequent) in which his villa- 
lues were mentioned at the consulate, by American ship-masters and sailors who had suffered 
by them, I very unreservedly expressed my indignation that our countrymen should be the 
victims of such a game between an American merchant and a man playing it without even a 
'"EEJmS N, P. TRIST. 





17 


it that I shall be under the necessity of having a new commission sent out: 
lor l am interested, and the knowledge I have from time to time of Mr 
1 nst-s observations, convinces me that he is and has been Hostile to me • and 
1 trust the time is not far distant when a person will fill the office who will 
know the necessity of treating me with all due respect * 
truly 


Havana June 20, 1838. 


FD. CLARK. 


Havana, December 21, 1839. 

I, John A. Smith, vice-consul of the United States of America at Havana, 
do hereby certify that the note, upon the back of which this is written, is in 
the handwriting (to me well known) of Ferdinand Clark, an American 
merchant residing at this place; and that said note was received by me on 
the 20th day of June, 1838,upon which day it was handed by me to Mr 
Tnst, the consul. 

J. A. SMITH. 


Havana, December 21, 1839. 

We, the undersigned, American and other residents at Havana, do hereby 
certify that the note, upon the back of which this is written, is in the hand¬ 
writing (to us well known) of Ferdinand Clark, an American merchant re¬ 
siding at this place. 

EDW. SPALDING, 

W. S. BRUCE, 

J. NENNINGER, 

ROBERT MORISON, 

C. D. TOLME, 

F. DE CONINCK, 

GEO. KNIGHT. 


[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 4.] 

Boston, March 1 , 1839. 

Sir : Some question has arisen in the district court of the United States 
for Massachusetts, in regard to the propriety of your executing a commis¬ 
sion to take testimony under a libel, filed by Ferdinand Clark against the 
barque Leopard ; which, under various pretexts, Clark has not placed in 
your hands. I think it is but acting a proper part to inform you of the ex¬ 
ception taken; and the copies on the other side are forwarded for this pur¬ 
pose. The commission alluded to issued about a year ago, and delays have 
been procured by Clark’s counsel in consequence of the non-execution of 
the commission. 

Having no grounds for believing the suggestions made, and thinking 
they are an artifice of Clark’s contriving, I should be glad to learn the truth 
of the matter ; so that any testimony he may procure under a commission 
directed to another person may have its due weight only. 

It is understood that Mr. Morland is to be applied to for the purpose of 
taking the evidence. Should you ascertain this to be the fact, will you 


B —2 


*This italicised by N. P. T. 




18 


procure the names of the witnesses, and inform me whether their credibili¬ 
ty or standing is such as to entitle them to belief? 

The original of the copies on the other side were read in open court du¬ 
ring my absence. The signatures appear to be genuine. 

A reply as early as will suit your convenience will oblige 

Yours, respectfully, 

WM. C. AYLWIN. 

N. P. Trist, Esq. 


[copy.] 

We, the undersigned, native Americans, of the United States of America, 
do hereby certify, from the knowledge that we possess respecting the 
conduct of Nicholas P. Trist, consul of the United States at this city, to¬ 
wards Ferdinand Clark, merchant of this city, that in no way and on no 
account could we recommend the said Clark to allow the said Trist to ex¬ 
ecute any commission or other transaction wherein the said Clark is in any 
way interested, by reason that we are aware that the said Trist, from some 
unknown cause, is an enemy of the said Clark ; and we further state and 
affirm, that it is our firm opinion and belief that the said Trist would avail 
himself of any opportunity to injure the said Clark. And we further say 
and declare, that we know that the character and conduct of the said Clark 
comports with that of a civil gentleman. In testimony whereof, we here¬ 
unto affix our seals and signatures, at the city of Havana, January 16, 
1839. 

E. D. G. BUMSTEAD, M. D., 

A. WENDELL, Jr., 

O. H. THROOP, 


L. S. 
L. S. 
L. S. 


We, the undersigned merchants, residents in this city, hereby certify that 
the above E. D. G. Bumstead, A. Wendell, jr., and Colonel O. H. Throop, 
are persons well known to us, and entitled to full faith and credit. In tes¬ 
timony whereof, we hereunto affix our signatures and seals. 

JOSE JULIAN AGUIRRE, 
EUSTOQUI CACHO NEGRETE. 

Havana, January 16, 1839. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 5.] 

At Sea, November 25, 1838. 

Sir : According to your request and my promise, I here give you a brief 
statement of the treatment which I received from Dr. Bumstead, during 
the first part of the present month, when in Havana. My acquaintance 
with him arose in this way: My second officer was taken sick, and wanted 
a physician ; I, being a stranger, made the inquiry among a number of 
the masters who were assembled together, what doctor I had better employ 
for him. Several of his grog-shop associates (as I afterwards learned) ex¬ 
claimed at once, “ Bumstead, by all means.” I, in my ignorance, did so. 
After a few days, I was taken sick myself. I did not send for Bumstead j 
but while I was lying upon a sofa, in the cabin, thinking what I would do, 
Bumstead came on board, saw me on the sofa, and asked if I was sick. I 
said I was, for the fever had then begun to rage so that I was becoming de- 


* 




19 


lirious. He felt my pulse, and said. “ You must be bled f at the same time ta¬ 
king out his lancet and calling for a basin. I permitted him to proceed, 
though with a good deal of reluctance, for I had begun to dislike the man. 
He went on, however ; but in what way I cannot say, for I remember only 
as a dream what transpired with me for the next four or five days; but 
this I know—I was most horribly salivated, and so weak, from several 
bleedings, that I was confined to my bed for fourteen days. Butnstead at¬ 
tended me but five days; for, when I came to my senses properly, I found 
that the delirium which I had suffered was caused, in a great measure, by 
I opium which he had given me. This was told me by Captain Morgan, 
who had been very attentive to me. I immediately sent Bumstead word that 
he need not call again, for I had no other sickness but that he had caused 
me. During this time, one of the crew took a fancy that he had the fever, 
when, indeed, it could have been no such thing. Bumstead, without my 
knowledge, got wind of it, and went on board, gave the man two powders, 
bled another man who had a headache, and charged them $7 apiece. 
At the same time an old man in the forecastle was washing a sore leg; he 
looked at it, told him he must put some blue-stone on it, and charged him 
$3. The steward told him he was not very well; he gave him two pow¬ 
ders, and charged $4. I, by accident, heard he had been among the crew ; 
and sent for the mate, and told him to tell him, if he came again, that I had 
forbidden it; which he did. A few days after, X sent for my bill; it came in 
footed $92 00. I refused to pay it; he was high in threats at first, but 
my consignee (Mr. Alvarez) told me to send him to him for payment, and 
he would stand as many lawsuits as he pleased to enter. He finally settled 
with him for $72, but without my knowledge; for I never would have 
consented to have paid him half that sum. 

I have been more tedious than I anticipated when I commenced writing, 
but I must beg your patience, sir; I cannot but become excited, almost to 
exasperation, when I think of, and smart, too, from the effects of, that fel¬ 
low’s quackery, and robbery I may say in truth. And, sir, if you will be 
kind enough to make use of your influence to put a stop to this fellow’s 
impositions, (not to call them by a worse name,) you may thereby be the 
means of saving perhaps the life, if not lives, of your fellow-beings. 

Most respectfully, your humble servant, 

H. ROLDAN E, Jr. 

Mr. Trist, American Consul at Havana. 

P. S.—You are at liberty, sir, to make whatever use you please of this, 
for I am willing to affirm to the facts of it. H. H., Jr. 

[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 6.] 

[confidential.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana , September 14,1837. 

In the report made by me some time since upon the attempt of Mrs. 
Page to extort money from one of her dying countrymen, I had occasion 
to mention a certain individual who (although, from his character and hab¬ 
its, utterly unfit to exercise the medical profession) availed himself of the 
title of American doctor to practise in this city, in contravention of the 
law, and to the great detriment of such of his countrymen as had the mis¬ 
fortune to fall into his hands. 


20 


At the time of writing that report, I was in the belief that this individ¬ 
ual was no longer in this island, having heard some months before that he 
had gone to Texas, where I hoped he would remain. 

It appears, however, that he has returned, and has had the audacity to 
renew the career before pursued by him, in defiance of the laws upon this 
subject. He has opened an office near to the wharf of the captaincy of 
the port; and being not merely the only American practitioner in the city, 
but, also, the one nearest at hand to the shipping, he is naturally called to 
the American mariners who need medical aid. I am informed that since 
the beginning of the sickness which yet reigns, a considerable number of 
patients have been so unfortunate as to be treated by him; and many of 
these have, no doubt, shared the fate of the unfortunate young English¬ 
man, who, having fallen into his hands, was within a few hours of his last 
gasp, in the final stage of the yellow fever, and his doctor all the time ig¬ 
norant that he was in any danger. 

It is intolerable that the peril and the sufferings to which my country¬ 
men are exposed, from the terrible disease which has been sweeping them 
off recently at so awful a rate, should be so greatly aggravated, merely that 
the purpose'of this adventurer may be served, of filling his pockets. I beg 
leave, therefore, to bring him to your excellency’s attention. 

His name is E. D. G. Bumstead. He is a native of the United States, 
where, it appears, he received a good education, and, perhaps, entered repu¬ 
tably the medical profession. He Was already here when I arrived for the 
first time ; and I understood that he had not been admitted to the faculty 
of this city, but had received a provisional permission to practise for one 
year. I have since been informed that this permission was never granted 
him. It appears, also, that, before coming here, he resided some time in 
South America. 

Whatever may have been his earlier career, and whether or not his char¬ 
acter ever was respectable, it has ceased to be so. I have long heard of 
him (and, I doubt not, correctly) as a person of exceedingly bad repute ; 
with habits so depraved, that, even if he possessed medical skill, his patients 
could not possibly receive from him any approach whatever to that close 
attention which, in the rapid progress of disease in this climate, is of vital 
importance. 

Independently, then, of the fact that he has no right to practise here, and 
that his doing so is in defiance of laws, the very object of which is to pro¬ 
tect the public against such mischiefs, I beg leave to express to your excel¬ 
lency my perfect conviction that his being allowed to do so is an evil of 
the most serious character. 


I have the honor, &c. 

N. P. TRIST. 

His Excellency Don Miguel Tacon, 

Captain General , $~c., 


[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 10.] 
Personage No. 4.— Colonel Oramel H. Tkroop. 


Four documents, to wit: 

No. 1. Letter from N. P. Trist to Lieutenant Contee of the United States 
schooner Wave.—March 21,1839. 


21 


No. 2. Reply of Lieutenant Contee.—March 22, 1839. 

No. 3. Letter from N. P. Trist to C. D. Tolme, Esq., Her Britannic 
Majesty’s consul at Havana.—June 13, 1839. 

No. 4. Reply of Mr. Tolme.—June 15, 1839. 

Remarks. —The personage here named is one of the three referred to by 
Captain Wendell , in his letter to Commander Babbit , to corroborate his 
statement. The documents now before us leave but little to be desired in re¬ 
gard to the reliance to he placed upon his averments. To obtain a complete 
proof of the utter recklessness and audaciousness of his mendacity, is the 
object for which I entered into the correspondence beginning with my letter 
to Lieut. Contee. That object it will be seen to have fulfilled. Besides this 
proof of the character of Colonel Throop. the occasion will be seen to 
have further elicited from Mr. Tolme some light upon the general subject, 
brought up by the wanton falsehood particularly under consideration. 

A word or two of explanation may, not without utility, be here added to 
Mr. Tolme’s letter. In the concluding paragraph he says : “ I have never, 
to my knowledge, interfered, officially , in favor of those American citizens,” 

&c. To understand the difference of our positions, and the countenance 
thereby afforded (not only without his concurrence, but in spite of all he 
could say) to the malignant imputation of unwillingness and incapacity to 
render service to my fellow-citizens, which has been plied against me with 
untiring industry, it is requisite to follow the clew here presented by the 
word “ officially.” 

Besides being one of the most kind-hearted and actively benevolent men 
I have ever known, no less than one of the most agreeable in society, (for 
which he has a strong taste and very uncommon talent,) Mr. Tolme is a 
merchant —for several years the head of a house doing very extensive 
business with our country, as well as his own and others. In this capacity, 
it has occurred to him, no doubt, in hundreds and hundreds of instances, 
to render acceptable services or attentions to American citizens ; as it was 
proper and unavoidable that he should, in the pursuit of his profession. 

They had nothing to do with his official character, except so far as this 
may have become blended with the professional; as, to some extent, can 
scarcely but happen when the two are united in the same person. From 
his character as a man and as a merchant, his course on every such occa¬ 
sion would have been precisely the same, had he not been British consul; 
except so far as he may have been indebted to the possession of this office 
for opportunities to acquire the consideration and influence that really be¬ 
longed to his personal worth and talent, or for facilities in bringing that in¬ 
fluence to bear upon any particular matter as it arose; 

Hence, individuals were daily experiencing at the hands of the mer¬ 
chant , the consignee of vessel or cargo, or the mercantile correspondent, 4 

whose profession (independently of his individual character) required him 
to extend, on every occasion that offered, the sphere of his acquaintance 
and the manifestations of his ability and disposition to make himself use¬ 
ful, services, facilities, and attentions, which, by being ascribed to the con¬ 
sul. furnished abundance of plausible grounds for bringing the character of 
the American consul into disparaging contrast with that of the only other 
officer of the same class with whom Americans ever become acquainted, 
or of whom they ever so much as heard. 

One illustration of this is afforded by the service required by persons ar- 


n 


riving at this port; which, although comparatively trivial, is of such con¬ 
stant occurrence, and of such importance to the wishes and anxieties of 
individuals, as to make no slight impression. Before they can lawfully land, 
a permit from the Captain General is indispensable—just as, in our ports, a 
permit must be obtained for the landing of baggage—add, when quarantine 
is in force, for that of persons also. To our countrymen, particularly, who 
enter port in the expectation of landing the instant they please, as they have 
been accustomed to do at home, under what seem to them similar circum¬ 
stances, this proves a great vexation, and very trying to the patience. This 
permit is obtained by means of a memorial, and the giving of a certain 
security. The custom of the place has assigned this service, as a kind of 
obligation, upon the house to which the vessel comes consigned ; and, ex¬ 
cept in the case of persons for whom the consignee has reason to avoid in¬ 
curring the responsibility, the permits are generally taken out by him, at the 
request of the master of the vessel, unless the passenger (frequently una¬ 
ware of the trouble resulting from this course) prefers to rely upon sending 
a letter of introduction on shore ; which sometimes comes to hand at too 
late an hour of the day for the permit to be obtained, and sometimes unac¬ 
companied even with the information whether the person introduced has or 
has not taken steps for being got on shore. Every mercantile house almost 
has a standing arrangement at the Government office where these permits 
are obtained, for giving the required security, by means of a clerk empow¬ 
ered to sign them on behalf of the house, and a part of whose regular busi¬ 
ness it is to attend daily to matters of the kind. It is despatched without 
occasioning any more trouble than is inseparable from it; and of this trou¬ 
ble the merchant has no part, except that of handing the person’s name to 
his clerk. If a service of this sort is thrown upon a consul who is not a 
merchant, he has to interrupt the business of his office by sending (or, if he 
has no one to send, by going himself,) to ask the favor of some merchant to 
have it attended to ; and then, perhaps, the request comes too late : the hour 
is past, or the clerk is already gone to the public office. Such requests, I 
have had repeatedly to make of the British consul, as well as of other mer¬ 
chants, on behalf of strangers, who, utterly unconscious of the trouble they 
had given the consul, thought it very surprising that they should be thus 
left dependent upon others for services which they fancied it to be his duty 
to render. Some deem it a great hardship not to be waited upon on board 
the vessel the instant she anchors, to be relieved of all delay, trouble, and 
vexation in the landing of person and baggage; such being, according to 
their indefinite notions concerning the nature of the office, the character of 
its functions. 

For the purpose of sparing to all parties interested the unnecessary trouble 
and delays resulting from the footing on which this matter has always stood, 

I have twice induced competent persons to undertake, as a part of their 
regular business, to board every vessel on her arrival, to offer their services 
to the passengers; and they have been furnished with a document from 
me, explaining the necessity and the advantages of such an agency, and 
giving in detail the costs involved in the whole proceeding, that the com¬ 
pensation asked by the agent might not be supposed greater than it was. 
But the reception which this proffer of service met with was such, that the 
attempt was, in both instances, immediately abandoned in disgust. 

Another illustration is afforded by services of a more important character. 
Of the cases in which a ship master, or other transient person engaged in 


23 


trade in any foreign country, may become involved in difficulty or litiga¬ 
tion, whether with private individuals or with the Government in any of its 
branches, but a very small proportion indeed are of a nature to admit of 
consular interference in any shape. They are purely individual concerns. 
Any one of them may, it is true, become a fit subject for international 
agency and discussion; but it is not so in its origin, and cannot be so treat¬ 
ed. At this stage, the only way in which a consul can have any right to 
act with respect to it, or in which it can possibly be in his power to do so, 
is, by giving his advice—by informing the person interested of his rights, 

] and counselling him what course to take. But it is otherwise with the 
merchant to whom this person is consigned, or with whose house he trans¬ 
acts his business, or to whom he has brought a letter of credit. The affair 
may be adopted by the house as their own ; or, if they choose to stop short 
of this point, it is their business at least to afford assistance and facilities in 
its management; to obtain legal advice, employ lawyers, and do all that is 
necessary for carrying it through ; including personal solicitations to magis¬ 
trates, if the laws or customs of the country permit it. Hence, if a consul 
be also a merchant, it cannot but happen that he will, in proportion to the 
extensiveness of his business in the latter capacity, render services which, 
in the eyes of those unacquainted with the true nature of the functions of 
the office, will appear to be rendered by the consul: whereas, in truth, they 
are services such as every other merchant, in the place is daily rendering ; 
with the only difference, perhaps, that the official character of the one gives 
him facilities which the others do not possess. 

Of the exceedingly vague notions which prevail in regard to con¬ 
sular powers, and the disappointments which are the consequence, the most 
striking instance that has recently occurred in my case is that of a gentle¬ 
man of great experience in mercantile affairs, who, having come here upon 
business of his own, was intrusted by a merchant at Mobile with the settle¬ 
ment of a matter pending with a house of this city, which does a large 
business with our country. The steps taken by him on the subject, amount¬ 
ing, as they thought, or pretended to think, to such a legal commitment on 
his part as would enable them to force a settlement from him, upon the 
terms which they deemed, or pretended to deem, equitable, he was sum¬ 
moned by them before a tribunal; and, considering this an attempt to in¬ 
volve him in “ vexatious litigation,” (which I also considered in that light,) 
he applied to me, in the confident expectation that I could, upon that 
ground, put a stop to it, in the discharge of my official duty of protecting 
American citizens ! 

N. P. TRIST. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 11.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana, March 21, 1839. 

Sir : If I recollect aright, I heard you, during your last visit to this place, 
mention to some gentlemen with whom you were in conversation, that a 
person from our country, who goes here under the appellation of “ Colonel 
Throop,” stated to you, in illustration of my conduct generally towards 
American citizens, that he himself had been compelled to appeal on three 
occasions from me to the British consul. The stupidity of the malevolence 
evinced by this self-evident falsehood was too gross to receive at the time 


24 


from me any other notice than the contemptuous laugh which it awakened. 
As, however, inventions of this kind are, I learn, multiplying every day, 
and as it seems that none can be so gross but they find swallowers, I am 
induced to avail myself of your present visit here, to catch, in the tangibility 
of paper and ink, one of these fleeting shadows. If you can find time, please 
give me a statement of what occurred between yourself and “ Col. Throop” 
on the occasion referred to. 

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

Lieut. Contee, 

U. S. schooner Wave. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enclosure No. 12.] 

U. S. schooner Wave, 
Havana, March 22, 1839. 

Sir : I hasten to reply to your favor requesting me to give you a state¬ 
ment of the conversation which passed between myself and a person call¬ 
ing himself “Col. Throop.” I exceedingly regret that this demand was not 
made when all the particulars were fresh in my mind, as it would afford 
me sincere gratification to detail to you every word of the scandalous abuse 
showered upon you by this personage ; but, of so little consequence did I 
deem his opinions, that they passed idly by. Yet one assertion of his is 
still well impressed on my memory: that he, and many others, had, on 
several occasions, been forced to appeal from you to the British consul. 
He asked my opinion of an American consul whose conduct would neces¬ 
sitate American citizens to take such a step. My reply was, that no causes 
could justify the appeal, and that all guilty of such an act had disgraced 
their flag and their country. 

I regret that my memory will not justify me in giving you a more minute 
account. 

I am, sir, with the highest considerations of esteem and regard, very re¬ 
spectfully, your obedient servant, 

JNO. CONTEE, Jr., 

U. iS. Navy. 

N. P. Trist, Esq., 

American Consul. 

[Enclosure No. 1.—Sub-enc-losure No. 13.] 

Consulate op the United States of America, 

Havana , June 13, 1839. 

Sir: 1 beg leave to trouble you with the request that you will peruse the 
enclosed copies of letters to and from Lieut. Contee of the U. S. navy, and 
state whether any such appeal as those asserted by “ Col, Throop,” or any 
thing whatever affording ground or pretext of any kind for the assertion, 
has ever taken place, or been attempted'; or whether they be purely the coin¬ 
age of his brain, or of the notorious confederacy here, whereof Don Fer¬ 
nando Clark and his friend Dr. Bumstead-are the well-known heads. 

“Col. Throop’s” statement is, you will perceive, a fair sample of the ac¬ 
counts of “our consul,” which, as you have on more than one occasion 
been made aware, have for years past, with a patriotic activity not surpass- 


25 


ed by that of any bumboat fruiterer of the harbor, been poured into the ear 
of every American arriving here, before he could well have time, however 
thirsty after fruit the sea air might have rendered him, to judge for himself 
of the flavor of a fresh Havana orange. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

C. D. Tolme, Esq.. 

Consul of H B. M. 


[Enclosure No. 1—Sub-enclosure No. 14.] 


British Consulate, 

Havana , June 15, 1S39. 

Sir : I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 13th inst., with 
copy of a correspondence between yourself and Lieut. Contee of the U. S. 
navy, by which it would appear that a certain Colonel Throop, formerly 
resident here, had asserted “ that he and many others had, on several occa¬ 
sions, been forced to appeal from you to the British consul j” and in reply 
to your inquiry, “ whether any such appeals as those stated by Colonel 
Throop, or any thing whatever affording ground or pretext of any kind for 
the assertion, had ever taken place or been attempted,” I beg to say that 
I scarcely knew Colonel Throop, except by sight • that 1 do not recollect 
having ever conversed with him on any subject whatever, and certainly 
never did on any in which an appeal was made from you to me by him. 

But I would add, that other persons, calling themselves American citizens, 
when their real or supposed grievances have not been redressed, in spite of 
your intervention in their favor, have occasionally applied to me—induced 
to do so, perhaps, either by the faint hope of being served, (which often 
leads the distressed to seek for other besides the protection to which they 
have a right to aspire,) or by a belief in the unjust report so industriously 
disseminated, of my being more able or willing to do them a good turn than 
yourself. 

On this latter subject I have frequently been spoken to, and have always 
believed that the rumor originated with Colonel Throop, Mr. Clark, Mr. 
Selden, Dr. Bumstead, and some others of the same class, who, from private 
pique, arising out of causes of which 1 am ignorant, seemed to me to let no 
opportunity slip of trying to prejudice you in the opinion of your country¬ 
men. 

I need not say that I have, on every occasion, sought to remove the im¬ 
putations so falsely cast on you; and that I have never, to my knowledge, 
interfered, officially, in favor of those American citizens who applied to me, 
unless they were British-born subjects—and then only by addressing my¬ 
self to you ; in which cases I have invariably found you most ready to act 
alone, or, if on consultation between us it was deemed more advisable, to 
coalesce with me in seeking to obtain them justice. 

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant, ( 

C. D. TOLME. 


N. P. Trist, Esq., ^c., $*c., $*c. 


26 


[Enclosure No. 2.] 

MACHINATIONS OF THIS CONFEDERACY ILLUSTRATED. 

No. 1 .—Case of the master of the brig Kremlin. 

Lieutenant Commandant McLaughlin, of the United States schooner Wave—Attempt of the 
confederates to turn him to account in their mischief-making against the consul . 

On the 2d of October, 1838, Lieutenant McLaughlin, upon coming to the 
consulate, showed me a letter which he had received from Captain Wendell, 
under date October 1, 1838, (sub-enclosure No. 1.) After running my eye 
over it, I informed him that it was a condensation of falsehood, altogether un¬ 
worthy of notice; and stated to him the true nature of the case. After he had 
left the office, it occurred to me that the occasion should be used for obtain¬ 
ing, by means of Lieutenant McLaughlin, proof of the audacious character 
of the villany that was constantly at work here, upon this and ever similar 
subject. 

With this view, I addressed to that officer my letter under date October 
3,1838 ; to which I received his reply of the same date, (sub-enclosures, 
Nos. 2 and 3.) 

The result will be seen in his letter under date October 6, 1838, which, 
with the certificate therein referred to, and a copy of Ferdinand Clark’s 
letter enclosing it, constitute sub-enclosure No. 4, and sub-enclosure 
No. 5. 

The main thread of the matter is presented unbroken, by ordering the 
sub-enclosures as above, from No. 1 to No. 5. As collateral thereto, I add 
a copy of Ferdinand Clark’s letter introducing Chauncey Fitch to Lieut. 
McLaughlin, (sub-enclosure No. 6,) and a copy of the affidavit which Clark 
had obtained from Fitch, under date September 1, 1838, (sub enclosure 
No. 7 ;) both which copies were furnished me by Lieutenant McLaughlin. 

Sub-enclosure No. 4 will be seen to present a picture of the prevarica¬ 
tions of Clark on the occasion. The certificate furnished by this person 
will be seen to have two names attached to it, besides his own and Dr. 
Bumstead’s. The first is that of Jacob S. Howell, the drunken ruffian from 
whom I had rescued the black crew brought here by him, whom he was 
starving {literally starving) in jail. The other name was unknown to me. 
Upon inquiry, it proved to be that of the keeper of a bowling-alley, in the 
vicinity of the prison where Wendell was confined ; an individual who, at 
the beginning of the business, had had the audacity to go on board the 
“ Kremlin,” as the friend of Captain Wendell, and tell the crew that if they 
attempted to give the captain any trouble with the consul, he would get 
them put into the stocks. For this act he would have been brought to the 
notice of the Captain General, had not my time been too much engrossed 
by other matters of more imortance. 

Sub-enclosure No. 5 will be seen to consist of two affidavits—the one, 
from Chauncey Fitch; the other, from Lieutenant McLaughlin. They 
were both written by Lieutenant McLaughlin, at my office, and there sworn 
to before me. Fitch had gone on board the “ Wave,” bearing a letter of 
introduction from Clark. The statements there made by him proving to be 
in direct contradiction to those made to Lieutenant McLaughlin by Clark, 
and particularly to the certificate furnished by Clark, that he had never 
heard any thing against WendelVs character , Lieut. McLaughlin came 
to the consulate to inform me of this, and to suggest the expediency of my 


27 

obtaining Fitch’s testimony, under oath, in regard to what he had told 
Clark. 

I was so busy at the time, that this would probably never have been done, 
had not Fitch chanced to come to the consulate before Lieut. McLaughlin 
left it. Whereupon he wrote the declaration for Fitch to sign and swear to; 
which being done, he added his own. In the latter will be found the an¬ 
swer given by Fitch to the question which (just after he had signed and 
sworn to his declaration) I had put to him in regard to the first mate’s habits 
as to sobriety. 

Sub-enclosure No. 6 is the declaration obtained by Clark from Fitch, 
(written, if my memory serves, by the former,) concerning the first mate’s 
being met by him on shore “badly intoxicated,” and what the first mate then 
told him. In this part of it, there is hothing but the truth. The board, for 
years past, for destitute sailors upon my hands, has been a dollar a-day. 
Upon taking charge of the consulate, 1 found it so. I reduced it to three 
quarters of a dollar; at which point it remained until, so far as I can recol¬ 
lect, (my accounts will show,) the period when the extraordinary rise in the 
price of provisions caused a general increase of prices for board, for passage 
in our ships, &c., &c.; whereupon, my attention being called to the sub¬ 
ject, I consented that the charge for boarding those thrown upon my hands 
should likewise be raised. This allowance was made to the first mate of 
the “ Kremlin,” just as it would have been to any common sailor in the same 
predicament. Some particulars on this point, showing the honesty of the 
man, will be found in my No. 62 (page 50.) 

It is true, also, that 1 did all in my power to cheer him up, not against 
“ defeat in the action pending with Captain Wendell,” (for, so far as I then 
knew or believed, or do now know or believe, he was not a party to any 
action with Captain Wendell,) but against the injustice which he was actu¬ 
ally suffering in being detained here, solely through the misconduct of ano¬ 
ther towards himself, and against the vengeance and persecution (imprison¬ 
ment, &c., &c., &c.) with which he was threatened. The way in which 
he stood out, under such circumstances, against the temptation to “ take 
himself off,” (as he was advised to do, and had many opportunities to do,) 
spoke volumes in praise of his honesty. 

And, finally, it is true that I did all in my power to hasten the proceed¬ 
ings, so as to bring about his release, and that of the rest of the crew, from 
this detention, so wantonly caused and so wantonly prolonged, by the course 
taken by their captain ; and that 1 told them so, and flattered them with my 
own hopes on the subject, whenever they came to express to me their anxi¬ 
ety to get away. 

N. P. TRIST. 

[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 1.] 

Punta Prison, October 1, 1838. 

Sir : Having heard that a United States ship of war is now in this port, 
I take the liberty to make known my case to you, relying that you will, no 
doubt, sir, investigate the affair, and therefore throw myself upon your pro¬ 
tection. I have been now, sir, sixty-five days in prison—and that too, sir, 
at the instigation of the United States consul— -for refusing to pay my first 
officer three months’ extra pay. 

The consul, it seems, now, sir, since 1 have been incarcerated , has en¬ 
deavored to bring quite a different action against me ; and, as I under- 


28 


stand, has denied that he put me here, but says the Government did. I can 
refer you to Ferdinand Clark, Esq., Dr. Bumstead, and others, as to the 
propriety of my conduct before my imprisonment. Sir, I have a large fam¬ 
ily at New York, who are suffering for my attention. I sincerely hope you 
will investigate the whole affair, and give me the liberty which is dear to 
every American. 

A. WENDELL, Jr., 

Master of brig Kremlin , of New York. 

To the Commander of the U. S.ship of war at Havana. 

T certify to the above statement of Captain A. Wendell, and believe the 
same to be correct in all its bearings; and, consequently, sign my signature 
to the same, this 4th day of October, 1838. 

< E. D. G. BUMSTEAD. 

[Enclosure No. 2. —Sub-enclosure No. 2.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 
Havana , October 3, 1838. 

Sir : After your departure yesterday afternoon, it occurred to me that 
you might serve the cause of truth against a great mass of low villany 
conspired here against it, by calling, in compliance with the request made 
in the letter addressed to you by the late master df the American brig 
Kremlin, upon Mr. Ferdinand Clark and Doctor Bumstead. All I would 
ask of you is, to inform them verbally (if you did so in writing they might 
be more cautious of commitment) that you have received the letter ; and, 
being referred to them, by the writer, for confirmation of his story, you re¬ 
quest them to peruse it, and inform you vjhether the case is truly stated , 
in order that you may be able to communicate the information thus obtain¬ 
ed to the officer commanding on this station. 

When this shall be done, 1 would ask the favor of you to communicate 
the result to me officially, with a copy of the letter of Captain Wendell. 

1 am, sir, very respectfully, vour obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

Mr. McLaughlin, 

Commanding U. S. schooner Wave. 

[Enclosure No. 2. —Sub-enclosure No. 3.J 

U. S. schooner Wave, 

Havana , October 3, 1838. 

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of this 
morning. I fully concur with you in the propriety of the course suggest¬ 
ed in the case of Captain Wendell. 

Respectfully, sir, I have the honor to be, 

john t. McLaughlin, 

Lieutenant Commandant. 

N. P. Trist, Esq., • 

American Co?isul, Havana. 


* This certificate properly forms part of appendix to sub-enclosure No. 4, wherein reference 
is made to it. The same remark appliesjto the letter from Wendell, to which it is appended. 

N. P. T. 




29 


[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 4.] 

U. S. schooner Wave, 

Havana , October 6,1838. 

Sir : I have the honor to enclose you a copy of a communication from 
A. Wendell, jr., master of the brig Kremlin, which was received by me on 
my arrival here, through Dr. Bumstead, of this place. It will be seen that 
charges of a grave and serious character are exhibited against you in this 
paper, for the veracity of whose statements I am referred to Ferdinand 
Clark, Esq., Dr. Bumstead, and others: a copy of the certificate of this 
latter person is appended to the enclosed communication of Wendell. Mr. 
Clark verbally certified to the truth of every letter of that paper, in two 
separate conversations held with him upon the subject, and on each occa¬ 
sion promised me his written certificates to that effect: which pledges he 
never redeemed, but sent me a certificate of Wendell’s morals, signed by 
himself and others, (a copy of which is enclosed,) and of what he under¬ 
stood to be the cause of Wendell’s imprisonment. It may be well to re¬ 
mark, that this certificate was sent me late in the evening of the 5th, Mr. 
Clark being under the impression that the Wave would sail early this 
morning, and that the last steps I might be disposed to make in Wendell’s 
case had already been taken. The duplicity of this man’s conduct, more 
than suspected before, was now made manifest through this certificate, the 
delays made in furnishing it, and the moment of its arrival; and fearful 
that one who had failed to redeem his positive pledges would not scruple 
to deny his positive assertions, I thought it prudent that the interview, 
which this certificate rendered necessary, should have place in the pres¬ 
ence of a third party. Lieutenant Contee, of this vessel, accordingly ac¬ 
companied me in my visit; when Mr. Clark, after professing ignorance 
upon some points of Wendell’s letter, (inasmuch as he had not examined 
the documents upon the subject, now on file in one of the courts,) ultimate¬ 
ly driven to the point, did acknowledge that he had said, and did now say 
again, that the statements in Wendell’s letter were correct , and that he be¬ 
lieved them to be true; yet he still refused to give a written certificate to 
this effect. 

From the course of Clark’s conduct, and this certificate of Wendell’s 
morals, which is proved to be false (and that Clark knew it to be so when 
he wrote and signed it) by the second mate of the Kremlin, who swears he 
told Mr. Clark that Wendell was under the influence of liquor when the 
difficulty which led to his imprisonment occurred, and, moreover, that he 
was habitually excited whilst in Havana, I am constrained to disbelieve 
any statement he may make upon the subject, and believe his conduct to 
have been influenced by a desire to cause me officially to interfere in this 
matter, entirely within your own province : the result of which interference, 
it was hoped, would involve you in difficulties either with the authorities 
here, or the Government at home. This was to be the object of my inter¬ 
ference, and was the origin of the sickly sympathy for Wendell; for it is 
manifest, from a studious and careful examination of the case, that he 
brought upon himself the punishment he is now undergoing by his mis¬ 
conduct, and his disregard of the law, not only of his own Government, 
but of this; and he must abide by it. 

Here, sir, I take my leave of this matter, which I should not have touch¬ 
ed (it belonging wholly to your office) had not the charges against you 


30 


been so great, and the references given been, at the time, deemed so repu¬ 
table. 

Respectfully, sir, I have the honor to be, 

john t. McLaughlin, 

Lieut. Commandant U. 8. Navy. 

N. P. Trist, Esq., American Consul , Havana. 

Havana, October 5, 1838. 

Sir : Agreeably with your request, herewith enclosed, you have the certifi¬ 
cate you desired, and various other documents in relation to our country¬ 
men who are imprisoned in this place, which I hope may be useful. The 
affair of Captain A. Wendell I particularly recommend to your kind atten¬ 
tion ; 

And remain, Sir, your obedient servant, 

FERDINAND CLARK. 

To the Commander of the U. S. sch’r Wave. 

To whom it may concern : 

We, the undersigned Americans, residing in this city, hereby certify 
that we are personally acquainted with Captain Abraham Wendell, of 
the American brig Kremlin, now in this port, from New York ; and we 
have never heard any thing against his character; and we have always 
understood that he was imprisoned in this city by request of the American 
consul, (N. P. Trist,) because he would not pay Mr. Bell, his first mate, 
three months’ extra wages. 

In testimony whereof, we hereunto affix our seals and signatures, at the 
city of Havana, this fifth day of October, 1838. 

FERDINAND CLARK, 

E. D. G. BUMSTEAD, 
JACOB S. HOWELL, 

P. B. TOMLINSON. 

[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 5.] 

Havana, October 6, 1838. 

I, Chauncey Fitch, hereby depose, before the United States consul for 
Havana, that I informed Mr. Ferdinand Clark, when questioned by him in 
relation to the difficulty existing between Captain Wendell and Mr. Bell, 
the chief mate of brig Kremlin, that at the time it occurred both Wendell 
and Bell were under the influence of liquor; and further, that Captain 
Wendell was habitually excited while the brig was here. 

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my seal and signature. 

CHAUNCEY FITCH, [seal.] 

Witnessed by— 

John T. McLaughlin, Lt. ComH U. 8. sch'r Wave. 

Subscribed and sworn to, this 6th day of October, 1838, before me, 

N. P. TRIST, [l. s.] 

I, John T. McLaughlin, commanding United States schooner Wave, do 
hereby depose as follows: The foregoing deposition of Chauncey Fitch 
was written out by me, and taken at my request, upon my happening to 


31 


meet said deponent at the American consulate, after having had a conver¬ 
sation with him in the Wave, in consequence of statements made to me by- 
Mr. Ferdinand Clark, of this place, in which said Fitch was referred to. 
1 was struck with the discrepancy between the verbal statement and writ¬ 
ten certificate of said Clark, (particularly in regard to his never having 
heard any thing against the character of said Wendell,) and the account 
given to me by said Fitch of the information he had given to said Clark; 
and therefore suggested to the consul the propriety of taking the testimony 
of Fitch. Immediately after the taking of the foregoing deposition, the 
! said Fitch was, in my presence and hearing, asked by the American consul 
1 if Mr. Bell is habitually given to drink; whereupon the said Fitch an¬ 
swered: “No, he is not; but I have once or twice seen him when he had 
taken too much.” 

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my seal and signature. 

john t. McLaughlin, 

Lt. Cornet U. /S', sdi’r Wave. 

Signed and sworn to, this 6th of October, 1838, before me, 

% N. P. TRIST, [l. s.] 

[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 6.] 

I, Chauncey Fitch, second mate of the American brig Kremlin, of New 
York, and now in the port of Havana, hereby declare, by the Holy Evan¬ 
gelists of Almighty God, and saith: That on the twenty-eighth or twenty- 
ninth of August last he saw Mr. Bell, who was lately first mate of the said 
brig, badly intoxicated in Calle del Obispo. I also declare that the said 
Bell informed me that the American consul, N. P. Trist, requested him to 
have no apprehension of defeat in the action pending with Captain A. 
Wendell, and that he should give him one dollar per day while he remain¬ 
ed here, and on Monday, the 3d September, he would pay him some money, 
and endeavor to despatch him on Tuesday or Wednesday the coming 
week. 

In testimony of the foregoing declaration, I hereunto affix my seal and 
signature, at the city of Havana, the first day of September, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight. 

CHAUNCEY FITCH. 

Witness— 

Robert F. Madan, 

Fernando Clark. 

[Enclosure No. 2.—Sub-enclosure No. 7.] 

To the Commander of the U. iS. schooner-of-war Wave, Havana: 

Sir : This will be handed to you by Mr. Chauncey Fitch, second mate 
of the American brig Kremlin, together with a letter and package. 

Mr. Fitch will be able to inform you respecting the affair of Captain A. 
Wendell’s imprisonment. He informed me that he was present when Cap¬ 
tain Wendell offered the United States consul the first mate’s wages and 
clothes; but he required three months’ extra, and threatened to imprison 
him if he did not comply, &c. 

I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 

FERDINAND CLARK, 

Havana, October 5,1838, 


32 


[Enclosure No. 2.] 

No. 2.— Case of the crew of the ship William Engs. 

[For the machinations in this case, see enclosure No. 4— Statement of 
the case of the ship William Engs, page 294; also. Appendix 2 to the 
same, page 328.] 

No. 5.— Fourth of July celebration of last year, (1838.) 

This illustration will consist solely of documents; which are five in 
number, to wit: 

No. 1. Extract from the Charleston Mercury, of July 24, 1838, consist¬ 
ing of the editorial notice, and the transmitted account, of the celebration 
of the 4th of July, (1838,) by “the American residents ” at Havana. 

No. 2. Letter from N. P. Trist, addressed severally to George Knight, 
John MorJand, and Edward Spalding, the oldest American residents at 
Havana, and also those whose names are best known in their own country 
and throughout the commercial world. June 13 (and 15), 1839. 

No. 3. Answer of Edward Spalding, June 14, 1839. 

No. 4. Answer of John Morland, June 15, 1839. 

No. 5. Answer of George Knight, June 20, 1839. 

Remarks. —In point of decency , the proceedings at this celebration of 
the anniversary of American independence speak for themselves. In point 
of truth , their character is demonstrated by the correspondence. In their pre¬ 
tension to be an exponent of the sentiments of “ the American residents” at 
Havana, they will there be seen to be an imposture of so rank a kind, that 
its match in point of audacity might be in vain looked for, but for the sub¬ 
sequent handiwork of the same counterfeiters. 

In Captain Wendell’s letter to Commander Babbit, he refers to three 
persons, to corroborate his statement. 

One of the three was “ Colonel Oramel H. Throop.” He will be seen 
to have graced the highest station at the proceedings now under consider¬ 
ation. For his character, let the part assigned him in this fraud speak; and 
if this prove not loud enough, let inquiry be made elsewhere. (See, in par¬ 
ticular, my No. 84, enclosure No. 1, sub-enclosures 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, page 
102 to 107.) 

Another of the three was “ Doctor E. D. G. Bumstead.” He will be 
seen to have graced the next highest station, as “ 1st vice-president.” For 
his character, let the part taken by him in this fraud speak; and if this 
prove not loud enough, let inquiry be made elsewhere. (See, in particular, 
my No. 84, enclosure No. 1, page 92; also, No. 84, enclosure No. 2; case of 
the master of the brig Kremlin ; testimony of Lieutenant McLaughlin, of 
the United States navy, page 107.)* 


* See, also, the testimony which may have been procured from Charles W. Storey Esq of 
Salem, (page 237,) in pursuance of the request made in my No. 101. Also, the testimony 
of Messrs. Spalding and Bruce, (pages 184 to 197,) in the Wendell case, transmitted with mv 
No. 104. Also, the testimony of Messrs. Knight, Morland, and Spalding, (pages 235 236.) in 
regard to the Babbit dinner and the Babbit address, transmitted with my No. 106. It may be 
remarked of the testimony, generally, that although it may be special in some respects to some 
one of these three personages, yet there is no particle of it but bears, by reflection at least, unon 
every one of the confederates.} ‘ 1 




33 


The highest of the three names, in the order wherein they stand mar¬ 
shalled in Captain Wendell’s letter, (Mr. Ferdinand Clark,) is, however, 
wanting on this patriotic occasion. Whether, though absent in person, he 
was with them in spirit, is left, therefore, to be judged from his character, 
and the philanthropic interest which the testimony shows him to have 
taken in all matters having a similar bearing upon the consul, in whose 
special honor this display of national feeling was got up. Should that tes¬ 
timony leave any void upon the present point, it may, perhaps, be filled up 
by the fact, that the individual who, as “2 d vice-president” stood next in 
rank to Dr. Bumstead, was “Mr. Antonio Herrera, of Florida” a name 
until then unknown to me. The person whose property it is, has been 
since pointed out to me in that of a youth, (probably under age,) who was at 
the time a clerk in the employ of Mr., Ferdinand Clark. His name being 
somewhat Spanish, it became proper to preclude the doubt which might 
thence have arisen in regard to the genuineness of his title to figure as one 
of the organs of the “ American residents.” Hence, no doubt, the addition 
11 of Florida” to that name. His father, I am told, is an officer of the cus¬ 
toms here ; whence it may be inferred, that if the son first saw the light in 
Florida, it was just about the time when the sire was presented with the 
alternative of becoming himself an American citizen, and entailing the 
same necessity upon his descendant; or, by following the Spanish flag, 
preserving to him the title and privileges of a loyal subject of the Spanish 
crown. 

Before taking leave of the presiding officers on this occasion, I will men¬ 
tion a circumstance told me by one of the first foreign merchants establish¬ 
ed here. Adjoining the “ Union Hotel,” where this festival wa^neld, was 
a newspaper reading-room established by an individual calling himself a 
naturalized American citizen; and who, therefore, had my subscription to 
his establishment, although, for any use which it could be of to myself, it 
was money thrown away. The merchant alluded to having gone there 
about the time the “ Charleston Mercury” was received at this place, (where 
it occasioned no small surprise among American residents particularly, as 
one of the curiosities of the hour,) he was told by the keeper that the ap¬ 
pearance of that paper here had occasioned a failing out between the pres¬ 
ident and the 1st vice-president, owing to the suppression by the latter, 
(understood to be the “Havana correspondent” of the “ Mercury”) to 
whom had been confided the trust of reporting the proceedings, of a part of 
what he (the vice-president) had stud on the occasion. Whether this sup¬ 
pression was the result of faithlessness in the “ Havana correspondent,” or 
of prudishness in the Charleston editor, 1 have never learned. From the 
nice regard for all the proprieties, so apparent in the proceedings as pub¬ 
lished, the hiatus may, however, be presumed to have been caused by the 
severity of editorial refinement and scrupulousness. 

Of the two toasts in honor of the American consul, one is entitled to 
some notice from the fact, that the matter, which it was made the occasion 
for throwing into circulation through the press of our country, is the con¬ 
centrated essence of one of the most effective of the varieties of standard 
falsehoods that have constituted the ordinary stock in trade of Ferdinand 
Clark & Co. That toast is put into the mouth of a certain “ H. E. Gib¬ 
son ,” (which, to my mind, remains to this moment a mere name,) and it is 
as follows: « The American consid: He shines with more splendor in the 
hall of the aristocrat than in the consulate of the United States.” 

B—3 


34 


This is a specimen of the stuff with which American citizens have, for 
years past, been unremittingly plied from the instant they entered the port. 
The only thoroughfare into the city, from the wharf where strangers are 
(with scarcely an exception) landed, is a short narrow street leading to the 
Plaza de Armas, from which my office is distant about one hundred yards. 
Here they were waylaid, in order to make sure of their becoming duly 
warned in regard to the consul’s character, supposing that they had es* 
caped being so before quitting the vessel which had brought them into 
port. Instances have cometo my direct knowledge, from the parties them¬ 
selves, in which endeavors have been made to dissuade them from calling 
at my office, although they were bearers of letters of introduction to me. 
One of these, which I at this moment recollect, was mentioned to me last 
February by Mr. Daniel, of Lynchburg, who brought an introduction from 
Mr. Ritchie of the Enquirer ; and I have no doubt, from the description he 
gave me, that the individual who had thus favored him with his patriotic 
solicitude was Dr. Bumstead, In this case it was thrown away; but that 
it has proved effective in instances without number, is, beyond doubt, true. 
Of the thousands who come and go, (the number may be conceived by that 
of the annual arrivals of American vessels—upwards of eight hundred,) but 
few have failed to become immediately possessed of the notion that the 
American consul held himself above the society of his countrymen, and 
kept company with none but the aristocracy of the place—being himself, at 
heart, a haughty aristocrat; and, in manners and dress, a supercilious and 
exquisite fop of the first water. And this, in regard to a man who, as is 
known to all who know him, would, on the public square, or anywhere 
else, give his hand with the same cordiality to a common sailor that he 
would to any lord high admiral for whom, as a man , he should enter¬ 
tain the same measure of esteem; whose dress is plainer, less costly, and 
longer worn, than that of any second class counting-house clerk in the 
place ; and would always appear shabby and mean, but for the cleanliness 
and neatness which are natural to him ; and who, so far from keep¬ 
ing company exclusively with the aristocracy, has never (with but 
three exceptions, rendered, by circumstances, obligatory upon him) been 
within the doors of any one of them; and whose visits to the pub¬ 
lic places frequented by them—-ball, opera, theatre, bull-fights, cock-fights, 
and masquerades—have not amounted to a dozen, all told, during his 
six years’ residence here. Their doors were open to me ; and not only was 
it allowable that I should cultivate the acquaintance which I had ex¬ 
press intimations of their disposition to form, but it was, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, officially incumbent upon me to do so. But, although sensible of this 
duty, it always appeared in my eyes of very secondary importance ; and my 
time has been so engrossed by those of a paramount nature, that, with the 
three exceptions just referred to, my first visit yet remains to be paid to any 
Spanish house in this city or island—including those even of officers of the 
government, my official intercourse with whom has resulted in no small 
degree of personal liking and intimacy. The most remarkable instance of 
this is in the case of the Conde de Villanueva, intendant, whom I had occa¬ 
sion to become well acquainted with very soon after my arrival, and at 
whose house (such has been his unvarying kindness and cordiality) it has 
always been my intention to become a visiter. Another is that of the 
Conde de Fernandina, a nobleman of great wealth and amiability of char¬ 
acter, whose house is the headquarters of intelligence and refinement, no 


35 


less than of fashion and splendor, in this country; who, as I have heard an 
English gentleman say, is the Duke of Devonshire of the island. The only 
occasion on which we ever met so as to speak, was kindly used by him to 
expresss the pleasure which it would afford him to see me at his house. 
This added a new motive to thpse which had long before determined me to 
visit him. But, had no other hindrance existed to my entering that circle 
of society, (and they did exist in more than one shape among them, want of 
health, and want of pecuniary means for even the indispensable expendi¬ 
ture in dress and other requisites for my family and myself,) want of time 
would alone have proved an effectual bar to it. If to the abovementioned 
three exceptions be added the occasions—perhaps as many as half a dozen— 
on which I have dined with General Tacon, (once or twice as a private 
guest at his family table, und the other times in my official capacity, in 
company with other foreign consuls or officers,) the sum total of the exclu¬ 
sive frequentation of the aristocracy by me will be made up. 

To these copious proofs of such a disposition on my part must, however, 
be added the manifestations of it afforded by my appearance, when under¬ 
going the penance of attendance upon occasions of state parade. On these 
—such has been the utter inattention of our Government to its consular sys¬ 
tem, or no-system, in small matters no less than in great—the consul of the 
economical republic is seen in a coat, the gorgeousness of which eclipses 
that of the far greater number of those on the backs of the wealthy and 
lavish decorated grandees around him. The art of embroidery in gold 
being, happily, unknown in-our country, and my ignorance of the matter 
profound, I sent my measure to London, accompanied with a literal copy of 
the details contained on this point in the standing instruction specially is¬ 
sued in the year 1815. Through a misconception on the part of my advi¬ 
ser in this important matter, I had been led to suppose that the cost "would 
not exceed one hundred and twenty dollars—a large sum, certainly, to be 
expended upon a coat, but yet not over three or four times the price I had 
been in the practice of voluntarily laying out for a garment of the same sort 
for the private individual. Its actual cost in London proved to fall just one 
dollar short of four hundred /—-more than enough to pay for the education 
and maintenance of one of my children, during two years, at the Philadel¬ 
phia institution where he now is. That it was ever intended by any one 
having a definite idea of the appearance of such a coat, (leaving out of view 
its cost, which the entire annual receipts of many a consulate must fall 
short of,) that it should be the habiliment of an American consul, cannot be 
believed by any American citizen who has once seen it; and, under this 
conviction, 1 should have sent it back, to be sold for what the metal worked 
into it might be worth to a Jew burner of gold embroidery, had not the in¬ 
dulgence of my own feelings been precluded by the reflection that the waste 
of money was already great enough, without any addition thereto, in the 
shape of the cost of a coat less discordant with the national character of the 
wearer, and in better harmony with his individual taste. 

N. P. TRIST. 

[Sub-enclosure No. 1.] 

The Mercury. Charleston , Tuesday morning, July 24, 1838, 

From Havana .—By the brig John C. Calhoun, Captain Ross, arrived on 
Sunday evening, we have received files of Havana papers to the 15th inst, 
inclusive. 


From our correspondent, we have received the proceedings of the Ameri¬ 
can residents in celebration of the Fourth of July at Havana. This is 
something new, as well as pleasant. We are glad that even the sunny and 
delicious land of the Spaniard cannot make them forget their native soil. 
The proceedings will be found in another column. 

Havana , Ath July , 1838.—Pursuant to previous arrangements, the Ameri¬ 
can residents in the city of Havana met to celebrate the anniversary of 
their National Independence, and partook of a dinner prepared for the occa¬ 
sion, by Mr. Butts, of the Union Hotel. The meeting was organized by 
choosing the following gentlemen as officers : 

Colonel O. H. Throop, President; 

Dr. E. D. G. Bumstead, 1st Vice President: 

M. Antonio Herrera, 2d Vice President; 

H. A. Gibson, Secretary. 

After a short but pithy address from the President, the Declaration of the 
Independence of the United States was read by M. A. Herrera, of Florida, 
2d Vice President; after which the company partook of the luxuries with 
which the boards were profusely loaded, and blest the host for the excellen¬ 
cy of the repast. 

The cloth being removed, the following regular toasts were drunk : 

I. The day we celebrate. 

2. The memory of Washington. 

3. The army and navy of the United States. 

4. The President of the United States. 

5. The heroes of ’76. 

6. The United States : Enemies in war, in peace friends. 

7. The fair sex of the United States : Though absent, yet not forgotten. 

8. Captain General Espeleta, and the city authorities of Havana. 

9. Our invited guests. 

Letters were then read from several distinguished individuals who were 
prevented from joining in the festivity on account of ill health: among 
these were H. B. M. consul, C. D. Tolme, and Dr. Brown, U. S. consul for 
Tampico. 

VOLUNTEER TOASTS. 

By Dr. Brown, U. S. consul for Tampico*—'The day-—this memorable 
period in the history of events dear to every American: May the freedom 
of our institutions, and the prosperity of our beloved country, never feel 
the want of that support given to them by the sons of the ocean—the sons 
of the immortal Washington. 

By Dr. Bumstead—The signers of the Declaration of the Independence 
of the United States: Though no longer in the land of the living, the re¬ 
membrance of their glorious deeds will ever teach the Americans what in¬ 
dustry and perseverance can effect under the most desponding circum¬ 
stances. 

By John Flemming, Esq.—The Eagle of Liberty: May her wings never 
be shorn, nor may she never need a feather to fly to the aid of the op¬ 
pressed. 

By Col. O. H. Throop—N. P. Trist, U. S. consul for Havana : He is not 
what he should be, and is not where he ought to be-—at home. (Three 
groans.) v 


37 


By J. S. Jenkins, Esq.—Song : Land of freedom! stranger’s home, &c. 

By Captain F. G. Kneef—The memory of Lafayette. 

By H. E. Gibson—The American consul: He shines with more splen¬ 
dor in the hall of the aristocrat than in the consulate of the United States. 
(Three groans.) 

By C. B. Moore, Esq.—Song : Hail, Columbia ! happy land, &c. 

By M. Anto. Herrera, Esq.—The American and Spanish flags : May the 
friendship existing between the two flags still continue, and may they long 
wave as emblems of peace and intercourse between the two nations. 

By John Russell, Esq.—The American Commerce : Extensive and hon¬ 
orable. 

By John Donougher, Esq.—“ The United States”: The land of free¬ 
dom—the refuge of the oppressed of all nations. 

By H. C. Gibson—Song. 

By J. B. Halsey—Washington’s ghost: May it appear to, and terrify, 
every American who, whether at home or abroad, dares to deny his coun¬ 
try, forget the 4th of July, or disregard the memory of the immortal Wash¬ 
ington. 

By Dr. Bumstead—Song: 

Come, one and all, 

Obey the call, 

And shout with happy glee; 

From home away, 

We’ll spend this day 
As sons of liberty. 

Now, standing up 
With full charg’d cup, 

For Spain’s young queen—let’s greet her ! 

Next toast the land 
On which we stand, 

And drink to Espeleta. 

Now, loud and long, 

With voices strong, 

United.States let’s cry ; 

And may she be 
Home for the free, 

And a land for liberty. 

By Captain Kneef—The memory of the immortal Lawrence : “ Don’t 
give up the ship.” 

Bv John Flemming, Esq.—The Sons of Liberty : May they never for¬ 
get the stripes of their forefathers. 

By Charles Baxter, Esq.—Americans absent from home: While they 
pay proper respect to the land where they may reside, may they never dis¬ 
grace the name of a republican. 

By Mr. Thornton—Our absent guest, C. D. Tolme, H. B. M. consul: 
The friend of Americans; he deserves their united thanks; may he re¬ 
ceive them. (Immense cheering.) 

By Dr. Bumstead—J. Smith, Esq., vice-eonsul of the United States: A 


38 


worthy American—accomplished, honest, and a strong lover of his conn - 
try; may he soon be restored to perfect health. 

Several other toasts were given and songs sung. 

[Sub-enclosure No. 2.] 

Consulate op the United States of America, 

Havana, June 13,1839. 

Sir: The enclosed Charleston Mercury of the 24th July, 1838, con¬ 
tains, as you will perceive from the editorial notice, an account of a patri¬ 
otic celebration of the 4th of July by “ the American residents at Hava¬ 
na.” In the exultation awakened in the editors breast by this “ something 
new as well as pleasant,” his keenness of perception may be supposed to 
have been somewhat blunted. This, at least, is the most charitable way to 
account for his apparent insensibility to those other properties, besides the 
“new” and the “pleasant,’ 7 full assurance of which appeared so stamped 
.upon the very face of “the proceedings,” as to place them manifestly, to 
other eyes, far beneath the notice of any man of ordinary respectability. 
To make of the Fourth of July a mere occasion for an outpouring of 
ribaldry, in a foreign land, against the American citizen there representing 
the country ! Of what comment was the fact susceptible? What possible 
corroboration could be given to the assurance stamped upon its forehead, 
that, among the contrivers, at least, there could not possibly be a person of 
decent repute? 

More displays of patriotism for the edification of our fellow-citizens at 
home, also enacted upon this stage, (which has, it seems, been ascertained 
to be at the right distance for true scenic effect) have, however, imparted to 
this 4th of July celebration an importance which did not intrinsically be¬ 
long to it. This is my motive for troubling you with the request that 
you will peruse the “ proceedings” of “ the American residents,” contained 
in the enclosed paper, and then state to me in reply : 

1st. How long you have been an “ American resident at Havana.” 

2d. Whether you are pretty generally acquainted, personally or by name, 
with the “ American residents.” 

3d. Whether, among the persons who appear to have taken part in the 
proceedings, there be, excepting only Dr. Bumstead, (too notorious to be 
unknown to any American, save only the unfortunate stranger upon whom 
his effontery fastens him,) one known to you, personally or by name, as 
an American citizen, resident or non-resident. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

[Sub-enclosure No. 3.) 

Havana, June 14, 1839. 

Sir : I have received your communication of the 13th, with the Charles¬ 
ton Mercury of the 24th July, 1838, which contains an account of the cele¬ 
bration of the 4th of that month, by the American residents of this city; 
and although I was an American resident here at that time, and in good 
health, I never heard a word about the celebration therein described, until 
I read it in the “ Charleston Mercury,” some time in the month of August 
or September following. 


39 


In answer to your inquiries, I have to state— 

1st. That I have been well acquainted in this city for the last twenty 
years, and a constant resident here for the last five years. 

2d. That I consider myself pretty generally acquainted, personally or by 
name, with the American residents. 

3d. That I have known Doctor Bumstead as a practising physician here 
for the last four or five years, but was not at that time personally acquaint¬ 
ed with any other one whose name appears in the account of the celebra¬ 
tion, and only knew by name Throop the engraver. Since then, I have 
j seen Mr. Donougher, who I believe to be an Irishman. 

Respectfully, I remain your obedient servant. 

EDWARD SPALDING. 

N. P. Trist, Esq., 

United States Gonsid, Havana. 

[Sub-enclosure No. 4.] 


Havana, June 15, 1839. 

Sir : In answer to the questions contained in your letter of to-day, rela¬ 
tive to an account of the proceedings at a celebration of the 4th July, 1838, 
published in the Charleston Mercury, under date 24th July, I have to state—• 

To the^ 1st: I have been a resident (American) and established since 
1804, or thirty-six years, except from the year 1814 to 1819, which interval 
I spent in the United States. 

To the 2d : I am pretty generally acquainted with, or know by name, 
most, if not all, the resident Americans in this city. 

To the 3d: That not one of the individuals, except Dr. Bumstead, who 
appear to have taken part in the proceedings alluded to, was known to me 
personally, or by report, as a resident American, when the account of their 
proceedings first met my eye in the Charleston paper. 

I am your most obedient, 

J. MORLAND. 


N. P. Trist, Esq., • 

United States Consul for Havana. 


[Sub-enclosure No. 5.] 


Havana, Jane 20, 1839. 

Sir : In reply to your queries, contained in your communication of 15th 
instant, I have to state, that I am a resident of this city since the year 1814; 
that I am generally acquainted personally with all the American citizens 
resident in the place; and that, after perusal of the notice in the Charles¬ 
ton Mercury of 24th July, 1838, of a dinner given in this city in celebra¬ 
tion of the independence of the United States, I must say that, excepting 
Dr. Bumstead, a resident American, there is not one among those that ap¬ 
pear to have taken part in that feast an American citizen to my knowledge. 

Your obedient servant, 

GEO. KNIGHT. 

N. P. Trist, Esq^, 

Consul for the United States , Havana. 


40 


[Enclosure No. 7.] 

Analytical table of contents. 

Arrival of the United States ship Boston at Havana, December 2, 1838. 
Conversation between Commander Babbit and the consul. 

First letter from Commander Babbit to the consul, December 9 ; deliv¬ 
ered December 10. 

Letter from master of brig Kremlin to Commander Babbit; its falsehoods. 

Consul’s reply to Commander Babbit, December 10. Necessity for de¬ 
tailing the circumstances under which it was written and sent. 

The Boston departs December 11 ; returns January 5, 1839. Com¬ 
mander Babbit visits the consul, and is very friendly. Incident: motive 
divulged for not hastening to Pensacola. Delay of the Boston’s departure. 
Commander Babbit’s second letter to the consul, January 11. 

Consul’s reply, January 12. Error committed by him in noticing certain 
parts of the letter replied to. His motive. 

Intimacy between Commander Babbit and his friend and shore-guide, 
Purser Southall, and the confederacy of Clark, Bumstead, & Co. 

Spirit and character of this second letter of Commander Babbit. De¬ 
monstration afforded by it of his frame of mind, &c. Its misrepresenta¬ 
tion, &c. 

Effect naturally belonging to such a mode of proceeding. 

Day again fixed for the Boston’s departure, 12th or 13th of January— 
she gets away on the 17th of February. 

A digression. Cruising orders under which Commander Babbit was. 
Pretext assigned for this second visit of the Boston to Havana. Ex¬ 
amined into, to discover the true causes of the course pursued by him 
towards the consul. 

Days repeatedly fixed for the departure of the Boston. 

Third letter from Commander Babbit to the consul, January 16; it is 
indicative of a design to sail. This expectation is not realized. ? 

Commander Babbit merged in Clark, Bumstead, & Co. Havana rumors. 
Activity of Captain Wendell in voting the American shipping in one of 
the Boston’s boats, placed at his disposal for the purpose. Objects of those 
visits. Important correspondence on points of international law between 
Commander Babbit and the Captain General. Discovery by Commander 
Babbit of treason and falsehood on the part of the consul. 

Friendly revelation of this discovery made to the consul by the trans¬ 
lator employed by Commander Babbit. 

Upwards of two months after, Commander Babbit himself emphatically 
breaks this ostrich secret to the consul. 

Charge of falsehood against the consul—on what bottomed. 

Fourth letter from Commander Babbit to the consul, February 5. (ante¬ 
dated.) J 5 v 

Course pursued by him towards the consul in regard to the case of Pur¬ 
ser Southall. It is changed—owing to what cause. 

Consul’s reply to Commander Babbit, February 6 : and his letter to the 
Captain General, February 6. 

Timing of this communication from Commander Babbit, and inconve¬ 
nience produced thereby. 

Commander Babbit’s communication to the Captaim General, antedated. 
These dates important as indications of the general state of things con- 


41 


nected with the Boston, and as evidence of the reliance due to the sayings 
and doings of her commander. 

Inference in regard to the merits of the case of Purser Southall, drawn 
by the Captain General, and generally at Havana, from the fact of no rep¬ 
resentation being made on the subject to either the authorities of the place 
or the consul. 

Inference drawn by the consul from the fact of his being still kept in the 
dark on the subject, after he knew that the Captain General had been com¬ 
municated with. 

The Boston departs for Pensacola February 17. 

The Boston returns to Havana April 2. Message to the consul and to 
the Captain General—she is to sail “ to morrow or next day.” 

Fifth letter from Commander Babbit to the consul, April 4. Its dictatorial 
tone. (Necessity of noticing this particularly, because, in a subsequent 
communication, misrepresented.) Purser Southall is the bearer. Parade 
used in its delivery. 

Statement made on this occasion to the consul by Purser Southall. It is 
in pointed contradiction, upon a most material point, with that previously 
made to the consul and others at Havana, by his companion and witness, 
Mr. Samuel P. Sturgis. Statement of the latter. 

Other scrap of testimony relative to the merits of the case. Conversa¬ 
tions between the consul and Dr. Ballard of Louisiana, and Mr. Sazerac of 
Havana. The latter relates a circumstance in justification of his assertion 
to the consul, that the purser was, on that occasion, heated with drink. 

The consul’s reply to Commander Babbit’s fifth letter, April 4. Consid¬ 
erations which determined its character. Hope that it would produce the 
immediate departure of the Boston, and thereby relieve all respectable 
Americans at Havana from what was a source of extreme humiliation to 
their national pride. 

This hope is disappointed. Another correspondence opened by Com¬ 
mander Babbit with the Captain General, who gives a definitive reply on 
the 8th of April, (after which the “to morrow” of the Boston does not ex¬ 
tend beyond a week; which week, according to all appearances and reports, 
is zealously and usefully employed in active intercourse between the 
officers of the Boston, of the one part, and Clark, Bumstead, & Co., of the 
other : having for its object to procure and prepare every thing necessary 
for the blow which shall effectually demolish the consul. 

Commander Babbit’s sixth and last letter to the consul, April 11 ; no 
notice taken of it; its character. 

The Boston at length gets away, April 15. 

A new incident occurs to prevent the fame of the Boston from dying 
away. Mr. La Bruyere and family return from Key West, May 2. 

Another incident, which suggests the question, whether it be a legitimate 
occupation for national vessels visiting foreign countries to smuggle indi¬ 
viduals out of them, in defiance of their laws. Hadermann’s case. Bald¬ 
win’s case. 

These incidents help to solve the conduct pursued by Commander Babbit 
towards the consul. 

The case of Purser Southall forms part of the contents of the last scrap- 
bag addressed by Commander Babbit to the consul; an explanation of it 
is therefore given. 

Documents referred to, and explained. 


42 


Prefatory explanation : Error committed by the consul in his letter to 
Commander Babbit of the 6th of February, in regard to an expression 
used by the Captain General about the violence offered to the sentry by 
Purser Southall. 

Colonel Zurita selected by the Captain General to conduct the inquiry 
into the truth of the affair—his rank and standing. 

Ground where the occurrence happened—a sketch of it. 

Narrative of the occurrence, received verbally from Colonel Zurita. 
Question put to him by the consul. 

Accordance of this narrative, in one material point, with the account given 
to the consul by JVIr. Sturgis. The consul is informed, by the interpreter, 
that, in giving his deposition, Mr. Sturgis related the affair as the purser 
did. 

Incident: The court, &c., kept waiting by Purser Southall, because he 
demurred to having his wounds inspected by the physicians legally sum¬ 
moned for the purpose, on the ground that the proper person to examine 
and report upon them was the surgeon of the Boston, <fcc. 

Statement of, with a running commentary upon, what occurred between 

the consul of the United States at Havana , and the commander of the 

U. S. ship Boston , in regard to the foregoing cases, and to the case of 

Purser Southall: including a statement of the latter case. 

[Mem. —The following dates of the arrivals and departures of the Boston are taken from the 
book kept at the office of the captain of the port.] 

The United States ship Boston, Edward B. Babbit, Esq., commander, 
arrived at Havana on the 2d of December, 1838. On the next morning 
(as well as can be recollected) Commander Babbit called upon the consul, 
who showed him the civility of accompanying him to wait upon the Cap¬ 
tain General. 

As. they were about to be shown into his excellency’s apartment upon 
this visit of ceremony, an incident occurred, which, after the visit was over, 
proved the occasion of a conversation between the commander and the con¬ 
sul. The incident, shortly after mentioned in one of the consul’s commu¬ 
nications (No. 61) to the Government, was an attempt on the part of a 
drunken desperado, by the name of Jacob £1. Howell, the hero of the case 
of the brig Antelope, of New Bedford, (reported in the consul’s No. 48) 
who had been haunting the grog shops for some time past, to introduce 
himself past the sentinels as one of the party. The consul perceiving this, 
as he was about to pass the last sentry, informed him that Captain Howell 
did not belong to the party; and he was accordingly not suffered to enter: 
or, if so, not at least until the visit of the commander of the Boston was 
over. In the conversation which ensued, the consul adverted to the un¬ 
pleasant scenes with a portion of our ship-masters, to which the discharge 
of his duties subjected him, and was replied to by the commander in a man¬ 
ner implying a full knowledge on his part as to the trouble which the char¬ 
acter of a portion of our seafaring men must necessarily give rise to. He 
added something to this effect: that several individuals, including the 
man in question, had addressed themselves to him to make complaint 
against the consul; but they had been told that he had nothing to do with 
such matters. He further spoke of some communications which, he un- 


43 


derstood, were to be made to him; ill which event, he would do all that 
his proper agency in such business allowed, by laying them before the con¬ 
sul, and transmitting them to the Government at home. His remarks were 
to the effect, generally; that he was fully aware that he had no right to in¬ 
terfere with the consul, and that the necessity of receiving such complaints 
was a great annoyance. The consul mentioned the game which wasplay¬ 
ing here in regard to himself, by some individuals of lost character; a part 
of whose design it evidently was, to break him down by involving him in 
i correspondence with every naval commander who might enter port, (of 
' which purpose the first manifestation had been afforded on the recent visit 
of the U. S. schooner Wave;) and he stated to Commander Babbit, that he 
knew beforehand what sort of communications would be addressed to him, 
and regretted that he should be put to the trouble of having copies of them 
made, as this would prove a tedious job to his clerk, and a sad waste of 
time upon matter altogether worthless. He was aware, however, that the 
form of transmitting them to him could not be avoided, and, upon receiv¬ 
ing them, he would, on his. part, go through that of acknowledging the re¬ 
ceipt, without pretending to engage in the task of explanations, which it 
was troublesome enough to make once to Government, as had already been 
done in some of these cases, and would be done in all, at the earliest mo¬ 
ment that the interruptions to which he was subject would allow. 

So far as the consul was aware, Commander Babbit appeared to under¬ 
stand the nature of his position ; nor did there seem to be the slightest pos¬ 
sibility of any discrepancy between their views in regard to the matter. 

The conversation just mentioned happened on the 3d of December ; and 
nothing further occurred on the subject until the 10th of the same month, 
on which day the letter of Commander Babbit, under date the 9th, with its 
enclosures, (sub enclosure No. I,) was brought to the consulate. On the 
same day came also the notification (not for the first time) that the Boston, 
whose stay in port had proved much longer than was announced on her 
arrival, would positively sail the next morning. 

Among the enclosures in Commander B.’s letter, was a copy of one ad¬ 
dressed to him by Captain Wendell, of the brig Kremlin, containing a repe¬ 
tition of the mass of falsehood written by that wretched man, in the month 
of October previous, to the commander of the U. S. schooner Wave; of 
which mass the two most prominent components were the following, to 
wit : 

1st. That the sole ground upon which he was detained in prison, and 
had been for “ nearly five months,” was his refusal to pay his mate three 
months’ extra wages; 2d. That the charge of a different nature , which 
the consul had endeavored to bring against him, had been brought since 
his incarceration ! 

This letter from Commander Babbit was replied to by the consul’s letter 
of the 10th, (sub-enclosure No. 2.) The character of the letter next ad¬ 
dressed by Commander B. to the consul being such as to render necessary 
a statement of the circumstances under which this reply of the consul was 
written and sent, that statement will be here made. Particular attention is 
invited to it. The consul has a recollection of his having been on that day 
so closely engaged as to render it impossible for him to write at all to Com¬ 
mander B., except at extreme inconvenience to himself; and that it was a 
pretty severe trial to his patience, that a communication from an officer 
having the command of his whole time , and supplied by Government with 


44 


a clerk , should be so timed as to subject his correspondent to great unne¬ 
cessary trouble, as the sole alternative to allowing the commander to depart 
without a reply. Upon being searched for, the original draught of the con¬ 
sul’s letter proves to be written in 'pencil: a mode never used by him ex¬ 
cept at night, when, too much exhausted to sit any longer at his writing- 
table, he had to resort to the pencil, because while seeking relief to a wea¬ 
ried frame and aching back in a Spanish chair, he could not hold the pen 
so that the ink could flow from it. 

The letter being written at night, at the consul’s residence outside the 
walls, (the gates of which close at half-past 10,) arrangements had then to 
be made to insure its being put on board the Boston in the morning, be¬ 
fore her “daybreak” flight. The sole mode that could be adopted for the 
purpose was, to send it in by the consul’s clerk, who had to make haste 
back to avoid being locked in the city. The person in the city, selected 
for sending it to, was a ship-chandler, Don Jos6 Cabarga, a perfectly sober , 
active man, who makes it his business to be on the water by peep of day, 
boarding vessels bound out and in, to offer his services to the latter, and to 
furnish to the former the last supplies required by them. This man is very 
obliging to the consul, as it is his interest to be ; and he is occasionally 
employed by him to deliver letters on board of vessels, when there is no 
special reason for having this done by a special messenger. 

From some cause, which the consul never took the trouble to inquire 
into, the Boston did not sail on the morning of the 11th. She did, how¬ 
ever, get out in the afternoon ; and nothing further was heard of her until 
the 5th of the ensuing 'month, January 1839; when she again entered 
port. 

On the morning of that day, as well as can be recollected, the consul was 
honored with a call from Commander Babbit, accompanied by Purser 
Southall, who came and went in an apparently very friendly mood. Du¬ 
ring this visit the following incident occurred. 

The commander stated that he had merely called in, on his return to 
Pensacola, and would take charge of any communications the consul might 
have ; and upon the latter’s inquiring what stay he would make, he replied 
“ a day or two only—we must go immediately, for our provisions are all 
but out.” He added, “ We hope to find the Macedonian there.” This was 
uttered in such a tone as to produce upon the consul’s mind the impression 
that something connected with the service was the matter, and to elicit 
from him the question “Why?” Whereupon, exchanging glances with 
Mr. Southall, and in a manner somewhat confused, Commander B. replied, 
“ Oh ! we want to find another commodore there when we get back” This 
brought to the consul’s recollection, that, upon the first arrival of the Bos¬ 
ton, he had heard something of her having been ordered to sea by Commo¬ 
dore Dallas, in consequence of a difficulty between him and Commander 
Babbit. Feeling no curiosity to learn any thing further on the subject, the 
consul did not pursue his inquiry. 

The day or two which the Boston was to stay was, by one postponement 
and then another, protracted from the 5th until the 12th of January; upon 
which day the consul received Commander Babbit’s letter of the 11th, (sub¬ 
enclosure No. 3,) dosing with “ I shall leave here to-morrow or next day 
for Pensacola.” 

, This letter not having been received by the consul until the “ to-morrow,” 
it followed that the sailing of the Boston would take place on the “next 


45 


day. 5 ’ Besides that caused by the necessity of perusing the letter, the con¬ 
sul was subjected, therefore, to the further interruption of his own proper 
avocations and those of his clerk, (among which he did not conceive the 
maintenance of such a correspondence to be,) consequent upon the neces¬ 
sity of replying without delay to the offer to take charge of any communi¬ 
cations he might have to make to the commander of the squadron. What¬ 
ever the consul might think of the rest of the letter, this offer being a proper 
one, it was proper to reply to it. This was accordingly done by the con¬ 
sul’s letter of January 12, 1839, (sub enclosure No. 4.) The consul now 
thinks that this answer ought to have been confined exclusively to the offer 
to take charge of his communications for the commodore ; and that it ought 
not to have bestowed any notice whatever upon the parts of Commander 
B.’s letter, alluded to as calling for explanations. The error committed by 
the consul in noticing these parts, and the manner in which this was done, 
serve, however, to show the spirit in which he acted; which was a feeling 
of sincere commiseration for the unfortunate man whose deplorable condi¬ 
tion a set of miscreants were availing themselves of, to make a tool of him ; 
and a determination that the condition and deportment of the man should 
not cause a forgetfulness of the decorum due to the commission and the 
command which he held. 

Before the receipt of this letter from Commander Babbit, circumstances 
(which were matters of current notoriety in the port) had come to the ears 
of the consul also, evincing the existence of relations between the officers 
of the Boston, (especially her commander and his friend, Purser Southall.) of 
the one part, and Ferdinand Clark, Dr. Bumstead, Captain Wendell, &c., 
on the other, which demonstrated that the commander was completely in 
the hands of the confederates, of whose glorious company the purser had 
probably become an accepted member, through his intimacy with Dr. Bum- 
stead, and a most efficient ally, through the opportunities afforded by cabin 
and shore-going companionship with “ the captain.” 

This demonstration was confirmed by'the first paragraph of Commander 
B.’s letter, which, as evincive of the state of his intellect, and the spirit to¬ 
wards the coifhul that dictated the communication, and continued to actuate 
him from this time forward, demands special notice. 

In the first place, note how the circumstance of the consul’s reply not 
being received “ until the morning of my leaving this port” is stated as af¬ 
fording ground of complaint; and how, coupled with this ground of com¬ 
plaint, and forming a suitable introduction thereto, a ground for umbrage is 
advanced, in the assertion that it was “ left with a grocer .” Would any one, 
on perusing this paragraph, ever divine that the morning “ until” which the 
consul’s letter was not received, was the very first morning on which it 
could be received—sensibly less than twenty-four hours after the re¬ 
ceipt by him of the communication to which it was a reply? Would he 
ever divine that this complaint of dil&toriness came from an officer who, 
with nothing to do , and with a clerk furnished him by Government to save 
him from the necessity of being occupied in writing perhaps, on an average, 
five minutes a day, or less, allowed four days to pass after the receipt of the 
last of the communications addressed to him, and six days after the receipt 
of the first, before the consul received a line from him on the subject? 
Would any reader take the assertion, that the consul’s letter was “left with 
a grocer? in any other sense than that in which it is an absolute falsehood, 
to wit: that it was left at a grocery, to find its way to Commander Babbit 


46 


when and how it might ? This is the sense in which, if it had ten thous¬ 
and readers, this assertion would be received by the whole ten thousand. 
Not one would ever dream of the true nature of the facts and circumstances 
on which it was bottomed; that, owing to the — (what shall it be called ?) 
of Commander Babbit, his communication was not sent to the consul until 
within less than twenty-four hours of the moment fixed by himself for his 
departure, so that, circumstanced as the consul was, it proved impossible for 
him to write a reply, except at a late hour of the night, when Commander 
Babbit and his associates were probably at the opera, or enjoying themselves 
at some other place of public resort, and the consul and his clerk ought to 
have been taking the rest which this task obliged them to postpone. Not 
one would ever imagine that, so far from its being deposited at a grocery 
to take its chance , as would be inferred from Commander B.’s assertion, the 
consul’s letter was carried late at night to a ship-chandler, who, because he 
was a ship-chandler, offered one of the surest ways that could possibly be 
used for conveying the letter on board the Boston at the earliest hour next 
morning. 

That it was conveyed according to the consul’s design, is proved by the 
commander’s complaint that “I did not receive it until the morning of my 
leaving this port;” which complaint, by the by, to accord with the truth, 
should read “ until the morning of the day of my leaving this portfor, 
conveying as it does the idea that the Boston left port in the morning, it con¬ 
veys an untruth. So far at least as recollections of such an event can be 
relied upon, she did not get under w;ay till the afternoon. Could he but 
have known it, there was no necessity for the consul’s putting himself and 
clerk to all that trouble. TAere, was something about the Boston that ren¬ 
dered it next to impossible for her to get out of the port of Havana ; and 
when, after the usual announcement V to sail to-morrow,” she was seen ac¬ 
tually under way, the effect was like that of the appearance of the wolf, 
after the cry which had lost all power to awaken belief in his coming. 

No further remark will be made up^n the letter, except that its tone and 
sense throughout are in keeping with those of the first paragraph, evincing 
a settled purpose to discover causes for umbrage and pick A. quarrel. In 
one breath instructing the consul in international law, ana dictating the 
course which he was to pursue ; in tlqe next, taking offence at the closing 
remark of his letter, “ had the circumstances been such as to afford any 
possibility that your co-operation with me could be of any avail, it would 
have been called for and making it a loop upon which to hang a fanfar- 
ronade assertion of the right of Commander Babbit—as if tkis had been 
called in dispute—to “ hear the complaints of my countrymen,” &c. And 
this introduced with a pompous announcement, as of a thing which the con¬ 
sul’s letter created the necessity of making proclamation of by sound of 
trumpet, “ that the commanders of ships of war of the United States are 
sent to the different foreign ports for the protection of our commercial inter¬ 
ests and the citizens of the United States”—a doctrine, by the by, which 
Commander B.’s course on this occasion proves the necessity of fixing a 
somewhat definite meaning to: deciding, with regard to it, 1st. Whether it 
authorizes the commander of every British or French or other foreign sloop- 
of war or gun-brig, which may visit New York, for instance, to force the 
Governor of that State into a correspondence on points of international law, 
requiring him to give an account of every British or other foreign subject 
who may chance to be in jail or penitentiary there. 2d. Whether, sup- 


47 


posing such authority to reside in commanders, the sacred duty of protect¬ 
ing citizens of the United States shall with impunity be used by a com¬ 
mander, under positive orders to be at sea , as a mere pretext for yielding to 
the impulses of his own crapulous imbecility—enforced, perhaps, by the sug¬ 
gestions of his purser and his purser’s shore friends, by lingering in port 
from hour to hour for a period of forty-three days , passing the carnival on 
shore, and setting to his officers such an example as made of himself and 
his uniform, under the eyes of the assembled squadrons of Britain and of 
France, the common town-talk, the spectacle, and the shame, during the 
j whole period. 

All this fanfarronade and parade of lofty principles, in reply to a letter 
received from the consul a whole month before , and now disturbed from its 
innocent slumber at the bottom of Commander B.’s desk, to be made the 
target for such thunder ! The letter is received on the morning of the 
11th of December. The Boston sails in the afternoon. On the 5th of 
January she returns to port, and her commander visits the consul, appa¬ 
rently in the most cordial manner; tells him that he will positively sail in 
one or two days, and says not a word about the letter. A week passes—the 
Boston is still in port—and then, lo and behold! what an avalanche of wrath 
upon the head of the poor consul ! 

Such a mode of proceeding cannot but prove rather trying to any human 
patience, even although the actor be one whom, from his making himself 
at the same time the common town talk as an infatuated sot, on the verge 
of mania a potu , it would be childishness to indulge in resentment against. 
Accordingly, it was not without satisfaction on his own account, as well as 
that of the national character, that the consul received the assurance (such 
as it could be, seeing the imbecility on which its fulfilment depended,) con¬ 
tained in this letter of Commander B., that the Boston was to sail “to morrow 
or next day.” 

This assurance was under date the 11 th of January. The Boston 
weighed anchor on the 17th of February —forty-three days after she had 
just called in for one day, or two at most, on her return to Pensacola; which 
return immediately was rendered indispensable, by the fact that her pro¬ 
visions were out! 

The consul has recently been told that the orders under which Comman¬ 
der B. put to sea from Pensacola, were, that he should remain at sea so long 
as his provisions lasted! This explains the necessity for assigning the 
reason which was assigned for the second visit of the Boston to Havana on 
the 5th of January, to wit: that she was on her return to Pensacola, her 
provisions being out. By the fulfilment of this condition, the order requir¬ 
ing her to remain at sea ceased to be in force. The consul now believes 
that the necessity and purpose of this immediate' return to Pensacola was a 
mere pretext, used, as an inference from the fact that the provisions were 
out, to give color to the assertion that this fact existed. Upon what was 
the crew subsisted during the six weeks that the ship lay at Havana, before 
she proceeded on her “immediate return” to Pensacola? The answer to 
this question will show whether the state of things which, under the order 
for the cruise, authorized the commander to bring his cruise to an end, had 
or had not arisen. If it had not arisen, then it is a plain matter of fact, 
that the only reason upon which could possibly be founded an intention on 
the part of Commander B. to return immediately to Pensacola did not exist; 
consequently, supposing him to be in his senses, that intention could not 


48 


possibly exist. It was, therefore, feigned. And for what purpose ? The 
purpose is manifest. It was to give color to the asserted existence of that 
state of things (the provisions being out) on which alone the commander 
could place his justification for not being at sea. The Havana carnival is 
just to begin. It would be much more pleasant to be passing one’s time 
amidst its debaucheries, than to be tossed about in “ the gulf,” or even lying 
“inside the Florida reef, from Sombrero Key to the Dry Tortugas.” But 
our orders require us to be at sea so long as the provisions hold out. 
Well, we can at least set out on our return from this cursed cruise, touch - 
ing at Havana, and taking care not to get back to Pensacola till the pro¬ 
visions are really out. or till we can be sure to find another commodore 
there. Arriving at Havana with ©wr and under the neces¬ 

sity therefore of departing immediately , we cannot well avoid being favored 
so far by the chapter of accidents as to be detained there long enough for our 
purpose. The duty of protecting American citizens, and with the aid of 
our friends Fernando Clark and Bumstead, looking into the doings of 
this consul of ours, will furnish occupation for some weeks, the leisure 
hours of which can be passed at the opera, masquerades, &c. 

This, so far as the state of Commander Babbit’s mind admits the suppo¬ 
sition that his course was governed by any consistent train of thought or 
deliberate plan, the consul believes to have been the plan on which the 
latter part of the Boston’s cruise was performed in the harbor of Havana. 
At any rate, it is scarcely to be supposed that he entered that port on the 
5th of January in pursuance of a definite settled purpose to return straight 
to Pensacola and report himself to the commodore who had sent him to sea 
with orders to cruise in the gulf until his provisions should be out. Any 
such purpose, if it existed, was doubtless in the vague state, common to the 
purposes of minds in that condition, admirably adapted to the reception of 
such modifications as might be suggested by the seductions of an Havana 
carnival, or as it might suit the philanthropic and patriotic purpose of Fer¬ 
nando Clark and Dr. Bumstead, aided by Purser Southall, to impart to 
it. Nor, on the other hand, is it probable either, supposing a plan, that 
his stay at Havana was premeditated to the full extent to whibh it was pro¬ 
tracted. Although, on entering port, it was probably known that the pro¬ 
visions were not so literally out as to render it unsafe to linger long enouo-h 
to enjoy a masquerade or two ; yet it could scarcely have been purposed to 
see the whole affair, and not to weigh anchor until the very snuff of the 
carnival was out. It so happened, however. The day of the sailing of 
the Boston, as obtained from the office of the captain of the port, beino- the 
17th day of February, the first day of Lent. 

To return from this digression, in which the order of time has been 
somewhat departed from, the consul will state, that although the Boston did 
not get under way “ next day,” yet, on several occasions about this time, 
there were notifications that she was to sail “ next day,” and consequent 
hurryings and settlings of accounts; until at last the very ship-chandler 
who furnished her supplies had become so sick of the whole affair, that the 
vice-consul intimated to the consul that the ship-chandler would, no doubt, 
gladly be one of seteral who would put their names to a subscription paper 
for procuring a steamer, if that could insure the fulfilment of the announce¬ 
ment for “ next day.” 

An earnest of its accomplishment was afforded in the shape of Comman¬ 
der Babbit’s letter of the 16th of January, brought to the consulate at 6 


49 


o'clock in the evening of that day, which, appearing like a parting instruc¬ 
tion, conveyed the idea that the commander really intended to sail on this 
“ to-morrow morning.” In this letter, (sub-enclosure No. 5,) it will be per¬ 
ceived that, after acknowledging the receipt of the consul’s of the 12th he 
re instructs the latter in the point of law, that “such offences committed 
under our flag are only cognizable to the courts of our own Government •” 
and repeats his injunction that the consul use his influence to have them 
sent to the United States for a trial. 

After this, although the Boston did not get away, the consul was not 
favored with any further communications from Commander B. for a period 
of about three weeks. During this interval, however, there were manifest 
indications of a complete merger of Commander B. and Purser Southall 
into the firm of Clark, Bumstead, Wendell, & Co., who loudly exulted in 
the certainty that this time the consul was done for. Wendell, the hero in 
the case of the brig Kremlin, had recently been released from prison, owino- 
(so it was proclaimed) to the patriotic energy of Captain Babbit, (who had 
just as much to do with his release, as he had with what was going on at 
the same moment in the star Sirius,) and he was now understood to be a 
dependent of Fernando Clark, and very active, with a boat of the Boston 
at his command , (though this may have been a mere boast, to show the 
consequence his intimacy with Captain Babbit imparted,) going about from 
ship to ship, in quest, it was said, of additional signatures to those which 
had been gathered at the drinking establishments, to prove what an exe¬ 
crable Spanish aristocrat and tyrant the consul was, and what a noble- 
heartfed, magnanimous, intrepid asserter of American rights existed in the 
person of Commander Babbit. 

It was also understood that the commander (who was reported to be 
affected with such weak eyes that, on the evening of his introduction at the 
whist club, he was under the necessity of taking “another pull” at brandy 
and water in order to enable him to see the cards') was engaged in a 
deeply important correspondence with the Captain General, which, besides 
the effect of settling certain points of international law, would be attended 
with that of exposing the ignorance and misconduct of the consul, so as 
inevitably to lead to his dismissal. 

Among other things which at this period came to the ears of the consul, 
was the following notable discovery of Commander Babbit. It related to 
the letter addressed by the consul to the Captain General, asking that the 
men of the William Engs should be tried and punished at Havana, which 
letter (see enclosure No. 4, sub-enclosure No. 2) formed a vitally essential 
part of one of the most important of the series of cases which the consul 
had been preparing to lay before the Government, as illustrative of the 
state of things in the merchant-service of the United States. Commander 
Babbit had actually discovered the existence of such a letter, and had suc¬ 
ceeded in obtaining a copy of it from the Captain General. And this letter, 
besides the gross abandonment involved in it of the rights of the United* 
States on the part of the consul, convicted him of falsehood ! 

Such was the occupation with regard to the consul of the United States 
of America at Havana, wherein the commander of the United States ship 
Boston was publicly said to be engaged ! It was a matter of public talk— 
too good a theme for exultation on the part of Clark, Bumstead, & Co., to 
allow it to be kept hid under a bushel; and yet the whole proceeding was 
managed with ostrich mystery, in order that the consul should have no 
B—4 


50 


suspicion of the awful disclosures which impended over his doomed head S 
The last of the sources from which the consul derived a knowledge of this 
Paixan shot, whereby his character was to be blown to pieces, was Mr, 
Sazerac, a Frenchman who earns his subsistence in part as a translator ; 
in which capacity he has been long employed by the consul. About the 
beginning of February, this gentleman, seeming to think that the relations 
which subsisted between them required an apology for his permitting him¬ 
self to be used in a plot against the consul, informed him that he had been 
employed by Commander Babbit, with a strict injunction not to let the con¬ 
sul know of it, to make a version into English of the letter addressed by 
the consul to the Captain General on the subject of the seamen of the ship 
William Engs ! The apology made by-Mr. S. was, that he thought he might 
as well earn the money as another ; to which he added, that the job had 
proved so hard a one, that, notwithstanding Commander B.’s injunction, he 
had had a great mind to spare himself the labor by applying to the consul 
for permission to take a copy of the original letter in English. The consul, 
of course, replied that he would have been welcome to it; and that he need 
never entertain any scruple about making money for his family, because 
those who might offer him work might happen to be engaged in plots 
against the consul: to take their work, and keep their secrets, was what 
the consul wished him to do on all such occasions. 

(The ostrich mystery of Commander Babbit in regard to this letter, was, 
as will be seen, brought to a close on the 11th of April, when the com¬ 
mander sprung the mine which had been so long preparing in a secrecy 
that made it the common talk of Havana, by conveying to the consul the 
appalling intelligence—its horrors made the more searing to his eye-balls 
by a deep underscoring—that that letter is u now in my possession .”) 

The charge of falsehood connected with this letter could have reference 
to nothing else than the fact, that, in replying to the communication first 
addressed to him by Commander Babbit, the consul had not entered into a 
circumstantial narrative of the case of the seamen of the William Engs j and, 
not doing so, had omitted all mention of his letter to the Captain General, 
because this could not be mentioned without entering into the reasons 
which led to it, and which dated four years back. In this libel upon him¬ 
self, and in the disgrace to his country which attended its propagation, 
the consul reaped the (perhaps not unmerited) fruits of the official impro¬ 
priety whereof he had been guilty in bestowing upon Commander Babbit’s 
communication any further notice than a naked acknowledgment of its 
receipt, coupled with an intimation that the consul could not engage in any 
correspondence with him upon these or any kindred subjects; a portion of 
them having been already reported upon to Government, and the remain¬ 
der destined to be so, as part of a series of cases, so soon as the interrup¬ 
tions to which he was subjected would allow him to prepare the docu¬ 
ments and accompanying explanations for transmission. 

Such ought to have been the consul’s reply; and would have been, but 
for his disposition to pursue, at the expense of a little trouble to himself, as 
well as of a slight abandonment of official right, a course analogous to that 
which, in private life, recommends itself to a considerate man thrown into 
a similar relation with one not in possession of his reason. It was no diffi¬ 
cult matter to perceive, as the consul did, the propriety of his pursuing the 
course least likely to produce excitement in the mind of Commander B.; as 
this, if once brought on, would scarcely fail to prove at least an addition to 
the already far too numerous sources of trouble to the Government, arising. 


51 

from the collisions into which, very contrary to his wishes, the consul is 
thrown. 

From the 16th of January, until the 6th of Februarv, the consul received 
no further communications from Commander Babbit/ 

On that day, a few minutes before meridian , Commander B.’s letter, un¬ 
der date the day previous , (sub-enclosure No. 6,) was brought to the con¬ 
sulate. 

This letter, it will be perceived, relates to the case of Purser Southall 
which had happened on the night of the second of the month; and now’ 
at meridian on the sixths the consul received, for the first time , any direct 
information on the subject J So utterly had Commander B. become merged 
in Clark, Bumstead, & Co., that (as scarcely admits of doubt) the consul 
would not have been communicated with on the subject at all, but for a 
remark made by him on the day previous, in replying to an inquiry from 
Dr. Ballard, of Louisiana, as to what measures were being taken in regard 
to the business. Under the necessity of replying tp that gentleman, (as he 
was to numberless others, Americans and foreigners, who questioned him 
as the person who, of course, must know all about it,) that he was utterly 
in the dark upon the subject—having, down to that moment, not heard a 
syllable with regard to it from the commander of the Boston or any of her 
officers—the consul added, in replying to Dr. Ballard, that it was even so ; 
that he had not been communicated with, and had been placed under the 
necessity of so stating to the Captain General, upon being spoken to by 
him; and that the Government of the United States should know it, and 
should decide whether it was fit and proper that the consul of the United 
States should be under the necessity, in regard to a topic of so much ex¬ 
citement, of replying to the officers of the Government here, to his fellow- 
citizens, to foreign consuls, to every one, (for every one addressed him as 
the person who could certainly tell the truth of the matter, what had hap¬ 
pened, and how, and what was doing.) that he knew absolutely nothing 
about it. This remark was repeated, or made the topic of remark by Dr. 
Ballard to Mr. S. P. Sturgis ; who, having as bearer of despatches become 
an inmate of the Boston, was spoken to on this subject by Doctor B. The 
opinion expressed by this gentleman was, that, whatever might be the grounds 
of complaint against the consul, still, so long as he was the consul, he ought 
not to be so dealt with ; this opinion, the consul has no doubt, proved the 
means of bringing, or partially bringing—that is, so far as he could be 
brought to them on any subject—Commander Babbit to his senses on this 
particular point, and thereby proved the sole cause of the consul’s ever 
hearing a word on the subject. Being probably remonstrated with, and 
thereby aroused from his stupefaction to the point of being made sensible 
that, although the consul said not a word, yet a respectable American citizen— 
a mere spectator—had his sense of propriety shocked by the deportment 
exhibited towards the consul, Commander Babbit, or those who had the 
steering of his course, bethought them that it would be politic to alter it in 
this respect. 

This communication from Commander Babbit was replied to immediate¬ 
ly, by the consul’s letter of the 6th of February, (sub-enclosure No. 7;) and, 
in pursuance of the intention therein expressed, the consul addressed to 
the Captain General the letter of the same date, (sub enclosure No. 8;) 
which could not be copied out in time to deliver it until the next morning 
before breakfast. 

(In this instance, again, the timing of Commander B.’s communication— 


52 


delayed, as it was, until the middle of the fourth day after the occurrence, 
although dated the day previous , and consequently requiring of the con¬ 
sul the utmost despatch, however inconvenient it might be—proved the 
cause of his not getting home that day until 10 o’clock, P. M., without 
having taken any sustenance since breakfast. In a business of importance 
to the Government, and in which despatch was vitally so, (the Miranda 
Florida case,) the consul had, with a good deal of pains, obtained from one 
of the witnesses to be examined, (Dn. Jose Maria Oliva,) an appointment for 
that day at four o’clock, at his residence in a suburb two miles distant. 
With a view to this appointment, the consul had, on leaving home that 
morning for his office, changed his dinner hour from four to two o’clock, 
intending to come by his house and take some food on his way to this ap¬ 
pointment,which involved several hours of writing. This plan was frus¬ 
trated by Commander B.’s selection of time for his communication. The 
consul remained at his office till the last moment, writing his answer to 
Commander B., and his communication to the Captain General, in order 
that the fair copies of these might be ready for his signature on his return 
from Sehor Oliva’s. There he was closely engaged writing until nearly 
nine o’clock ; and on his return, instead of being able to turn towards his 
own house, he had to proceed to his office, nearly a mile off in an opposite 
direction, where his clerk had been left, with instructions to get his dinner 
at an eating-house and return to his writing. The night was pitch dark and 
very blustering, and the waves running high ; but there was no knowing, 
should the reply to Commander B. not be delivered that day, what new 
fabrication might be grounded on this circumstance; so the poor worn- 
out clerk was despatched with it, and came back drenched with spray, to 
hasten to the consul, to get out of the gates to their rest after this Babbit 
day’s work.) 

In the consul’s reply to Commander Babbit, as will be noticed, he men¬ 
tions. the circumstance that his conversation with the Captain General, 
about the middle of the day on the day preceding, (the third day after the 
occurrence,) was previous to the receipt by the Captain General of Com¬ 
mander Babbit’s communication. That communication bears date the 4th 
of February, (the second day after the occurrence.) It was not sent until 
the 5th of February, (the third day after the occurrence ;) on which day, as 
he was leaving the Captain General’s, a little before meridian, the consul 
met in the antechamber Lieutenant Moore of the Boston, who was the 
bearer of the communication dated on the second day after the occurrence. 

These dates are thus particularly referred to, not because of any import¬ 
ance necessarily belonging to such circumstances, considered in themselves 
only, but from their being pregnant indications, accordant with every other 
that came from the same quarter, of the state of things on board the Boston. 
Here is an occurrence,-prolific of rumors that set the whole city in commo¬ 
tion. One day passes—a second passes—and no sign of life comes from the 
Boston. What does the Captain General infer from this ? What is the in¬ 
ference generally drawn from it throughout the city ? Why, that the Bos¬ 
ton is ashamed of it, and is willing to let the matter pass off; thus coun¬ 
tenancing the idea that the sentinel had been compelled, reluctantly to use 
his weapon in defence of his person against an overflowing of pot-valor ! 
The third day is well advanced, and then a communication is carried to 
the Captain General; and this communication is dated on the day previ¬ 
ous—the second day. Why was it not written and sent on the first day 
after the occurrence—the same day when the purser’s report, enclosed in it, 


53 


is dated ? And if it could not be written and sent on the first, why was it 
not on the second day? 

Meanwhile, the consul is kept in the dark upon the subject. He has met 
the officer carrying in a communication to the Captain General. What is 
he to infer from this? Why, that Commodore Babbit sees fit to conduct the 
business without making him privy to it. And this inference is left to gain 
strength until the next day, ( the fourth day,) when, about meridian, a com¬ 
munication is received, which, like that addressed to the Captain General, 
is antedated. 

On the 17th of February the Boston at length sails for Pensacola. 

On the 2d of April she again enters the port of Havana. The first lieu¬ 
tenant is sent to the consulate with a message that the commander would 
call in person, <£ but he is sick.” The consul is therefore requested to ac¬ 
company the lieutenant to the Captain General, to come to an understand¬ 
ing about the parting salute, the ship being homeward bound on Rer return 
from the station ; and also to inform his excellency that she will sail “ to¬ 
morrow or next day,” and will take any communications which his excel¬ 
lency might have for the United States: this offer being made to the 
consul also. To this the consul replies, that there is no occasion to trouble 
his excellency with a visit on the subject of the salute, inasmuch as it may 
be fired with the assurance that it will be answered gun for gun ; but if 
the lieutenant wishes to deliver in person the offer to take charge of his 
excellency’s communications, he will be accompanied by the consul’s 
clerk, who will interpret for him. This offer is accepted; and the clerk, 
on his return from making the call, informs the censul that the first lieu¬ 
tenant stated to his excellency that the Boston would probably sail “ to¬ 
morrow.” 

No further communication of any kind took place between the consul 
and the commander or officers of the Boston, until the 4th of April; upon 
which day he received Commander Babbit’s letter of that date, (sub-enclo¬ 
sure No. 9,) wherein, as will be perceived, the consul is called upon “ to 
demand of the Captain General copies of the testimony given in the case 
of Purser Southall.” In a subsequent communication from Commander 
Babbit (speaking of the present) he says that it desired the consul 11 to de¬ 
mand a copy,” &c., without any underscoring of the word “ demand.” It 
becomes therefore necessary here to point to the fact, that in the communi¬ 
cation of Commander Babbit, as received, and now transmitted, this word 
was, as it now is, underscored. It is not necessary to observe that this 
underscoring imparted to it a peculiar meaning; and that this imparted to 
the note itself, as conveying a call upon the consul, a significance of per¬ 
emptoriness which, without the emphasis thus laid upon it, it would not have 
possessed. In perfect keeping with this underscoring , (harmonizing as it 
did with the general understanding, which, by the time the Boston had been 
visited by one or two of the persons laboring under grievances at the con¬ 
sul’s hands, ran round the port like wild-fire, to wit: that Commander Bab¬ 
bit was going forthwith to instruct the consul in his duties, redress 
grievances, and set ail to rights,) was the mode and manner of delivery 
adopted for Commander Babbit’s communication. The bearer was Purser 
Southall, who, entering the consulate in full .uniform, (the only time the 
consul recollects to have seen him thus equipped,) bore up majestically to 
where the consul was writing ; and, laying the document upon the deskin 
a very emphatic manner, observed in a corresponding tone, “ There, sir, is 
a communication from Captain Babbit!” The scene impressed the consul 


54 


with the idea that it would have been a very well acted summons to sur¬ 
render at discretion, had he been the commander of the little Punta fort, 
and Mr. Purser been the messenger from a long line of seventy-fours 
anchored in position, announcing a Paixan hailstorm as the alternative to 
instant submission. 

The enclosure contained in Commander Babbit’s letter (the communica¬ 
tion he had received from the Captain General) being, at Purser Southall’s 
request, delivered to him, he was informed that Commander Babbit should 
immediately receive a reply. Thereupon he took his leave; not however 
until, in a burst at “ the infamous falsehoods” which he said were contained 
in the Captain General’s letter, he stated to me how he was deporting him¬ 
self at the moment the lancer wounded him ; and, in doing so, made a state¬ 
ment in most pointed contradiction with that made to me, and no doubt to 
dozens of others, by Mr. Samuel P. Sturgis of Boston, his companion on 
that occasion. 

With regard to the allegation that Purser Southall had raised his cane 
upon the soldier, Mr. Sturgis, acknowledging that he had raised his cane y 
(a small ratan of whalebone,) denied that it was for the purpose of striking. 
The account received by the consul from Mr. Sturgis’s own lips, and also 
from several other individuals who had, on different occasions, received it 
directly from Mr. Sturgis, was as follows : (there were, however, some slight 
variations in the different copies of the attitude, and the consul gives that 
which was enacted before his eyes:) Purser Southall stood facing the lancer, 
his ratan elevated in his right hand, which was a few inches from his right 
eye, and a little above its level. Shaking the ratan, he repeatedly said to 
the lancer* 11 Strike if you dare ! I am an American officer—strike me if you 
dare !”—not intending, said Mr. Sturgis, to strike the soldier ; but merely 
defying him to strike. 

Now, taking this for the exact state of the case, and assuming that there 
was no intention to strike the lancer, it is very obvious (as the consul re¬ 
marked to Dr. Ballard and some other Americans) that the line separating 
the intention to strike from the intention not to strike was a very nice one ; 
particularly when it was taken into consideration that the man upon, or to¬ 
wards whom, the stick was thus raised, did not understand a word of what 
was said to him, and was a soldier , placed under circumstances in which 
his first duty was to make his person respected. 

Be this as it may, the discrepancy between this account of Mr. Sturgis 
in the month of,February, and the remark made to the consul by Mr. 
Southall in the month of April, is not a little remarkable: »’Tis all an in¬ 
famous falsehood, sir,” said Mr. Southall, referring to the Captain General’s 
communication just brought by him, “and I can prove it. I made no 
threats. I folded my arms on my breast , and said, ‘ I am an American offi¬ 
cer—strike me if you dare.’ ” 

The consul will add to this the only other scrap of any thing in the 
shape of evidence that has come to his knowledge. Dr. Ballard, of Loui¬ 
siana, who saw Purser Southall at the theatre shortly after, had informed 
the consul that he did not consider him intoxicated ; although, he added, 
we all know how such an affair was likely to sober a man. On the night 
of the 6th of February, after the consul’s letter to the Captain General was 
written, as he was returning from the house of Senor Oliva, in company 
with Mr. Sazerac, already mentioned, (who was associated with him in the 
commission on the Miranda case,) this gentleman began to talk of the 
Southall affair, evincing a decided leaning towards the American party. 


55 


******** After running on, in his vivacious French 
way, giving the various accounts afloat of the incidents of the business, he 
remarked in French, speaking of Purser Southall, whom he had seen just 
after : “ A dire vrai , il etait aussi un peu pris ,”—(But, to tell the truth, 
he was a little corned.) “ Take care,” remarked the consul, “ how you talk 
in that way; I have been told that he was sober.” « Oh !” resumed Sa- 
zerac, “ Je ne dis pas qxCil etait sou; mats il avait an moins bien dine.”— 
(Oh ! I don’t say that he was drunk ; but he had at least dined heartily.) 
And here a hearty French laugh was followed by the narration of this in¬ 
cident, in corroboration of what he had just stated. “ He invited me,” 
said Sazerac, “to take something to drink with him ; and as we stood at 
the bar, he dropped several dollars worth of pezetas. Seeing that he did 
not notice this, I remarked to him ‘You have dropped your money.’ Where¬ 
upon he said ‘ Oh !’ and made a gesture signifying, let it go. So I picked up 
his money for him.” 

The tone of Commander Babbit’s note, the uncertainty as to what might 
have passed between him and the Captain General, and all things connect¬ 
ed with his condition, whether directly or indirectly, making it most desira¬ 
ble that the Boston should depart at the earliest moment possible, all con¬ 
spired to determine the consul to the course of declining to have any thing 
to do with the proceedings of Commander Babbit on this subject; and 
should he find another subject for correspondence, then to decline peremp¬ 
torily to hold any with him on any subject. In pursuance of this resolve, 
the consul’s letter (sub-enclosure No. 10) was sent to him, in the hope that 
it would have the effect of breaking the spell that bound the ship to this 
port, by hurrying the commander off, to lay this grievance before the Gov¬ 
ernment without loss of time. In this, however, the consul was disap¬ 
pointed. Commander Babbit addressed himself directly to the Captain 
General—whether in the tone of demand , which he prescribed to the con¬ 
sul, or in one less imperial, the Government will have the means of know¬ 
ing. The Captain General’s reply went to him on the 8th of April; after 
which, the Boston’s “ to-morrow” did not last more fhan a week : which 
time was, from all appearances and accounts, well employed in concert 
with Clark, Bumstead, & Co., in collecting and preparing the munitions, 
and arranging the plan, for a grand combined movement against the villain 
of a consul. 

As an earnest of what he was to expect, the consul received, on the 11th 
of April, Commander Babbit’s communication of that date, (sub-enclosure 
No. 11,) which is made up of fair samples of the stuff that had been col¬ 
lecting* and concocting at Havana, to be discharged through newspapers in 
the United States—still more unconscious of who and what they are being 
made the tools of, than the miserable man whose name they are parading— 
that is, than he was at the outset: for, that he had, before his final, depart¬ 
ure from Havana, ceased to be unconscious of his actions, and had be¬ 
come well aware of the, predicament in which he had involved himself, is 
plain enough. Superadded to the indications which pervade this produc¬ 
tion, of the state of imbecility of the writer, are manifestations no less de¬ 
cided of a guilty conscience offering excuses in anticipation of blame, re¬ 
sorting to the lowest artifices of misrepresentation and untruth, and hoping 
to conceal the rottenness of the whole proceeding by raising a great smoke 
of patriotic profession. In a word, this communication betrays the con¬ 
sciousness of the writer, and those with whose assistance it was concocted, 
that they had sealed their own doom, unless, by stealing a march upon 


56 


truth, they should be able to forestall public opinion. Hence their haste 
to get to press, and the simultaneous proclamation in our sea-ports, from 
New England to Louisiana, of a string of falsehoods glorifying Comman¬ 
der Babbit and defaming the consul; and no less false in their glorification 
than in their defamation. 

To the great relief of every American possessing a feeling for the char¬ 
acter of his country, the Boston at length weighed anchor on the 15th of 
April, on her return home; and it was fondly hoped that, once fairly pass¬ 
ed the Morro, there would be an end of her as a theme for Havana won¬ 
der, and all recollections of her would be allowed to subside without dis¬ 
turbance. This hope, however, was not destined to be realized. 

On the 2d of May the schooner Yictory entered the port of Havana, 
from Key West; and the following statement (on a subject which became 
a topic of general inquiry of the consul) was made to the vice-consul by 
the master. He had brought over, as passengers, a M. La Brtiyere and his 
family, citizens of the United States, who had been deposited at Key West 
by the United States ship Boston. After waiting there some time in the 
hope of an opportunity offering for the States, M. La Bruyere had paid two 
hundred dollars to get back to Havana. This family had been some time 
resident in Mexico, where they had made friends of all American visiters, 
as they did at Havana of all who became acquainted with them. They 
had come to Havana as a way to get a passage to the United States, and 
had been kindly offered one by Commander Babbit. It seems, however, 
that, on reaching Key West, Commander Babbit discovered that his orders 
did not allow him to take lady-passengers—so, at least, said Havana ru¬ 
mor, on the reappearance of these Boston passengers, as the consul was 
informed by the numerous inquirers in quest of a sufficient explanation of 
the “ scandalous trick to serve such respectable people.” 

A fairer indication of the general state of things connected with the Bos¬ 
ton could not well be afforded than the above incident. 

Associated with it is another, which suggests the question, How far the 
taking of private individuals away from foreign countries, in defiance of 
the laws of those countries , is a legitimate occupation for national vessels ' ? 
That it affords a cheap mode of displaying the commander’s patriotic devo¬ 
tion to his fellow-citizens, and thereby earning laurels of newspaper puffs, 
is not so open to question. 

Among the visiters at Havana from the United States last winter, was% 
German adopted citizen, named Hadermann, who, without knowing the 
Spanish language , had left a situation affording a support at New Orleans, 
in the hope of doing better by delivering lectures (!) at Havana. This gen¬ 
tleman, after producing to the American consul testimonials of high re¬ 
spectability, proposed to him to cash a draft of $50 on a Baltimore relation 
of his (H.’s) wife. The consul, however, having become satisfied (although 
too late) that nothing short of Fortunatus’s purse would suffice to answer 
these calls, had the firmness to decline taking the proposed draft. It did 
not, however, hold out against the entreaty for a loan of $10, which would 
enable Mr. H. to get away from the boarding-house where he had impru¬ 
dently put up, in order to go to a cheaper one. This removal took place ; 
and, at the departure of the Boston, Mr. H. must have been living several 
weeks at his cheap home, where, it is next to certain, he must have owed 
the poor people for several weeks’ board and lodging. He is said to have 
gone in the Boston. If so, it can scarcely be supposed that he deemed it 
requisite to go through the formalities established by the laws of the coua- 


57 


try, for the purpose especially of protecting creditors against the clandestine 
departure of those indebted to them ; and which formalities being neglected, 
(they are all connected with, and end in, the taking out of a passport,) the 
vessel carrying away the individual becomes liable . 

That Commander B. entertained no scruple on the subject, and deemed such 
forms altogether unworthy of regard from any “ patriotic” American citizen, 
had been shown some weeks befpre, in the case of Col. Baldwin, of Florida, 
a friend of Governor Call, and member of his staff. Colonel B. had, in con¬ 
sequence of the robbery of his effects, become involved in some very vexa¬ 
tious legal proceedings, in the course of which he had been judicially inform¬ 
ed that he must remain in the island until they were decided. The case 
(and this as part of it) was a general subject of conversation among the Ameri¬ 
cans in the place; not one of whom, probably, including Commander B., 
but knew all about it. On Saturday afternoon, February 16th, between 4 
and 5 o’clock, as the consul was leaving his office to go home to his dinner, 
he met Colonel B., who was coming to ask his advice about accepting an 
offer of a passage from Commander B., who was to sail next morning. After 
showing his disposition “to truekle” to the Spanish authorities, by taking 
every step which could at that late hour be taken for obtaining their consent 
to the departure of Colonel B., (which steps resulted in his failing to find a 
single one of the officers with whom it was necessary to communicate,) the 
consul displayed his truckling disposition still further by advising Colonel 
B. not to go in the Boston ; which advice was followed. 

With such incidents as these occurring simultaneously with the commu¬ 
nications from Commander Babbit to the consul, those communications and 
the rest of his deportment towards him cease to afford any cause for sur¬ 
prise ; and they may be left to speak for themselves, without the comments 
for which at every line they afford room. Of the last of these productions, 
particularly, the true character is stamped upon its face, as an altogether 
forced and artificial compound—written not ta, but at the consul; evincing, 
throughout, the writer’s utter destitution equally of any true starting-point, 
or of any definite purpose, save only that of fabricating for the press some¬ 
thing, any thing, which might call off from himself that scrutiny from his 
country’s eye, of which the anticipation of a guilty conscience already made 
him feel the scorching. And a most miserable abortion it has proved, worthy 
in every respect of its parentage ! The wretched writer and his assistants 
wfll learn, that, whatever temporary advantage may be gained by preoccu¬ 
pying the public ear with falsehood, it is not by such miserable Mawworm 
declamations—“honor of sustaining the flag of the country,” “proudappella¬ 
tion of an American citizen,” “repel at all and every hazard the slightest 
intentional insult offered to my national flag, or the oppressions of our citi¬ 
zens”—as form the staple of their fabric, that the American people can be 
imposed upon. 

Inasmuch as Commander Babbit has interwoven, or jumbled, the affair of 
Purser Southall with the other matters shaken together in this last scrap- 
bag of his, the consul will here give a succinct statement of the case, (the 
only intelligible one he has heard,) as obtained verbally from Colonel Cristo- 
val Zurita, the mayor de plaza, upon whom it devolved to form the sumaria 
in the case—that is, to conduct the examination of the witnesses, and the 
reducing of their testimony to writing. 

The "consul was desirous of obtaining an entire copy of the expediente , 
embracing all the testimony, and every step in the proceedings. This, how¬ 
ever, although the Captain General expressed a strong desire to do so, could 


58 


not be furnished here, without a breach of rules which it was'deemed danger¬ 
ous to break through. He therefore felt himself under the necessity of re¬ 
ferring to the Supreme Government at Madrid, by whom he had no doubt a 
copy of the whole proceeding would be furnished, on application from the 
Government of the United States. 

Before entering upon the statement of the case, the consul will refer to the 
letters (and their translations) from the Captain General, under dates the 
19th of March and 8th of April: both received on the latter date. (Sub- 
enclosures Nos. 12, 13, and 14.) 

The first of these is a letter from the Captain General to the consul, im- 
bodying the opinion of the Auditor of War —bylaw the authoritative adviser 
of the Captain General in regard to all matters the cognizance whereof be¬ 
longs to the latter in his capacity of judge of the Tribunal Militar. 

The second is a letter from the Captain General to the consul, imbody- 
ing a letter addressed by him to the commander of the United States sloop- 
of-war Boston; and also enclosing copies of two documents, copies whereof 
had accompanied the letter to the commander of the Boston. 

The third consists of the two documents just mentioned; which are—- 
1st. The opinion of the Auditor of War upon the “petition” addressed to 
the Captain General by the commander of the Boston, asking a copy of the 
proceedings in the case of the purser of the Boston ; 2d. The report made 
to the Captain General by Don Cristoval Zurita, the mayor de plaza, who 
had been charged by the Captain General with the inquiry into the facts 
of the case. 

As prefatory to the statement obtained from Colonel Zurita, the consul 
will also here refer to the letter addressed by himself to Commander Babbit, 
on the 6th of February, 1839, (sub-enclosure No. 7.) In that letter mention 
is made of the conversation which had occurred between the consul and 
the Captain General, wherein the latter is stated to have observed that an 
attempt had been made to force the post of the sentry. Now, as no attempt 
was made, literally, to force the post , it is necessary to state here, 1st, that 
the remark really made by the Captain General was misconceived by the 
consul; and, 2dly, to explain how it came to be so. 

The expression used by the Captain General was, that an attempt had 
been made to force the consigna of the sentry. Now, consigna is a Span¬ 
ish military term, of very comprehensive import, to which we have no 
equivalent. It means any and every thing that is consigned , or intrusted, 
to a sentinel. If his orders be solely not to let any one pass, or cross the 
line on which he is posted, then to prevent this constitutes his consigna ; 
and to force his consigna means nothing else than to force his post. If, on 
the other hand, he be also charged not to permit any one to stop at a par¬ 
ticular spot, then to persist in stopping there is to force, or do violence to, 
his consigna. 

To this general term, as used by the Captain General, the consul was led 
to attach, in this instance, the special meaning of forcing the post, in con¬ 
sequence of his mind’s being preoccupied with the account of the affair, 
originating with Mr. Sturgis, the companion of Purser Southall, (and also, 5 
the consul believes, with the purser himself,) which was going the rounds 
among the Americans at Havana. This account, which was made the 
basis of the consul’s letter to the Captain General, (sub-enclosure No. 8,) 
represented the carriage of Messrs. Southall and Sturgis to have been stopped 
by the sentry ; and this, too, notwithstanding its being the last of the file 
of carriages conveying the party: a circumstance which, to the consul’s 


59 


mind, rendered the sentry’s conduct inexplicable, except on the supposition 
that he had been guilty of remissness in allowing the others to pass, and, 
being enraged thereat, and probably, too, at some threat of punishment for 
his carelessness, his rage had been expended upon this carriage. It will be 
seen that the origin of the affair was just the reverse of this ; consisting, 
as it did, in the circumstance, that the carriage stopped at a spot where the 
sentry had orders not to allow any carriage to stop. 

The statement of Colonel Zurita will now be given : premising that he 
is an officer of high standing, who holds, under the appointment of Gen¬ 
eral Tacon, confirmed by the Government at Madrid, one of the most im¬ 
portant posts in the staff, which makes him the second man in rank from 
the Captain General himself, as Governor of Havana, (the Teniente Rey 
being the only intervening officer,) and intrusts him with powers and re¬ 
sponsibilities the most delicate and arduous. This officer was selected by the 
Captain General as one upon whose experience, sagacity, and firmness he 
could implicitly rely for the searching and unsparing scrutiny into the truth 
of the matter, which was particularly requisite in consequence of the Cap¬ 
tain General’s determination (as the consul learned from Colonel Zurita) 
that, if the soldier had really committed a wanton assault, he should be shot. 

The accompanying sketch (sub-enclosure No. 15) will afford an idea of 
the ground where the occurrence took place. The Teatro Tacon, as will be 
perceived, occupies one of the four corners formed by the crossing of two 
streets, or highways; the broader of which, parallel to the city walls, is an 
alameda , or promenade, on which the theatre fronts; and the narrower is 
a common road, or street, leading from the city gate past the side of the 
theatre. Among the sentries which, agreeably to invariable usage on the 
occasion of a public exhibition of any kind, were posted in the vicinity of 
the theatre to preserve order, was one at S, in front of the theatre, on the 
opposite side of the alameda , whose orders were to keep the passage free 
in both streets, by not allowing any carriage to stop in either, within the 
square of crossing. 

This sentry, seeing a volante, which was on its way from the city gate to 
the theatre, stop at V, so as to obstruct the way up and down the alameda , 
hailed the driver, and ordered him to proceed, and not block up the road to 
other carriages. To this order the persons in the volante seemed to set them¬ 
selves in opposition—one of them (Mr. Sturgis) crying out, “ Para , para 
that is, giving to the driver, in Spanish, the counter-order, to stop were he was. 
Finding his repeated order disregarded, the sentry (a lancer) enforced it by 
giving two blows with the butt-end of his lance to the driver, who cried out 
that it was not his fault, but that of the two gentlemen in the volante, who 
insisted on his not proceeding. Thereupon the two passengers, very much 
excited, and using'very angry language, (which the witnesses did not under¬ 
stand,) got out of the volante—the purser on the left side, next to the lancer, 
and Mr. Sturgis on the opposite side. The tallest, dressed in a frock-coat 
and cap, (the purser,) faced the lancer, and threatened him with a whalebone 
stick which he carried ; whilst his companion, coming round behind the vo¬ 
lante to the side of the lancer’s horse, laid hand upon the lance at its butt-end. 
At this instant the soldier, seeing that not only his consigna (orders) was 
violated, but that he was about to be disarmed and assaulted, jerking his 
lance from the hand of Mr. Sturgis, cried out, “ From me, nobody takes my 
lanceand, couching it, gave sundry thrusts, in the course of which the 
purser received two slight wounds—one on the left side of his neck, the 
other on the back of his left hand. 


60 


Such is the account given to the consul by Colonel Zurita. Upon inquiry 
of him whether the declarations of the witnesses contain any thing in re¬ 
gard to the purser being heated with liquor, Colonel Zurita has stated, yes; 
that several of the witnesses represented him as intoxicated, as will be 
found in their depositions; although, through delicacy to our flag, he had 
in his report omitted to mention this circumstance. 

It will be perceived that the foregoing statement accords in one very ma¬ 
terial point, to wit: the raising of the cane at or towards the lancer, with 
that received from the lips of Mr. Sturgis by the consul. From the num¬ 
ber of persons he has heard repeat it, as heard from Mr. S., the consul 
doubts not but Mr. S. must have related it at different times to at least a 
dozen persons at Havana. And yet, upon inquiry of the interpreter, the 
consul is now informed that the deposition given by Mr. Sturgis accorded 
with that of the purser, who represented himself as having crossed his 
arms on his chest! 

The consul was informed by the Captain General, that, in consequence 
of his letter of the 6th of February, (sub-enclosure No. 8,) a re-examination 
of witnesses took place, particularly of those referred to by the purser; 
which resulted in new confirmation of the untruth of the representations 
on which that letter was bottomed. 

This account of the case of Purser Southall will be closed with the fol¬ 
lowing incident connected therewith. 

Owing to the tardiness of Commander Babbit’s communication to the 
Captain General, the proceedings of inquiry which Colonel Zurita was, 
in consequence, ordered to conduct, did not commence until the sixth or 
seventh day after the occurrence. 

On that day, about meridian, the consul on reaching his office was in¬ 
formed of a message from the Captain General, requesting his attendance 
at the Government-house. On repairing thither, the consul found the fol¬ 
lowing state of things: the purser and surgeon of the Boston, and Mr. 
Sturgis, had, in compliance with an invitation to that effect, presented them¬ 
selves at the Government-house; where they found Colonel Zurita with 
the interpreter, &c., and two members of the medical faculty of the city, 
ready to enter upon the case. The first step in the proceedings, as pre¬ 
scribed by Spanish law, consisted in the examination of the wounds of the 
purser, by two physicians of the country, and the writing down of the re¬ 
sult. Informed of this, the purser had (as the consul learned) demurred to 
having his wounds examined or reported upon by any other than the sur¬ 
geon of the ship, because he considered him to be the proper person; and 
also to giving his deposition, except in the presence of the consul of the 
United States. Upon this ground the court and the two physicians had 
been kept waiting for an hour or two, the consul believes. Colonel Zurita 
having repeated to the consul the assurance which had been proffered to 
the purser through the interpreter, that, although he had no objection to re¬ 
ceive the report of the surgeon of the Boston, and attach it to the proceed¬ 
ings, yet the examination for which the two Spanish physicians were in 
attendance was an indispensable legal requisite; and, further, that their 
laws would not permit the attendance of the consul at the taking of the 
testimony,—the consul informed the purser of this, suggested the propriety 
of his not persisting in dictating the mode of proceeding; and, that the 
courtesy displayed by the court and professional men summoned by it, in 
good-humoredly submitting to this delay, might not be longer taxed—with- 
drew. He was aware that, no doubt, according to the purser’s standard of 


61 


{{ patriotism,” he would prove recreant thereto, by pursuing any other 
course than that of insisting on the right to dictate what was proper and 
what improper to be done on the occasion, without regard to any such triv¬ 
ial pretext as the necessity of proceeding, in a case involving perhaps the 
life of the sentinel, in the mode prescribed by the laws of the country. 
But this was an imputation, the necessity of subjecting himself to which 
seemed inevitable, and therefore to be submitted to. 

As illustrative of the spirit in which this business was conducted by the 
Captain General and Colonel Zurita, it is proper that it should be known 
that the two physicians summoned on this occasion were Don Francisco 
Alonzo y Fernandez, and Don Ramon de los Santos; the first at the head 
of the medical staff of the army, and so distinguished as to be an honorary 
member of three of the societies of medicine and surgery of our country— 
Philadelphia, New York, and New Orleans;—the second, a city practition¬ 
er of medicine and surgery of high standing. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 1.] 

United States ship Boston, 

Havana , December 9, 1838. 

Sir : I herewith have the honor to enclose you several communications 
from masters and seamen of vessels belonging to the United States, who are 
now imprisoned at this place. 

I will thank you to give me any information respecting the correctness 
of their several statements. 

Respectfully, your obedient servant, 

EDWARD B. BABBIT, 
Commander U. S. N., ship Boston. 

To N. P. Trist, Esq. 

United States Consul , Havana. 

Punta Prison, December 5, 1838. 

Sir : Having heard that you were in port, I take the liberty to make my 
case known to you, relying that you will investigate the affair. I therefore 
throw myself upon your protection. I have now, sir, been nearly five 
months in prison, at the instigation of the United States consul, for refus¬ 
ing to pay my first officer three months ’ extra wages ;* he having de¬ 
serted twice the brig Kremlin, then under my command : once in Matan- 
zas, whence he came to join her by steamboat, and afterwards at this an¬ 
chorage. 

The consul, it seems, has endeavored to bring a charge of a different 
nature against me, since I have been incarcerated; and, as I have been 
informed, has denied that he put me here; alleging that the Spanish au¬ 
thorities had done it. 1 have to refer to Ferdinand Clark, Esq., Dr. Bum- 
stead, Col. Troup, and others, as to my conduct in Havana; to Captain 
Flowery, of ship William Francis, Mr. Fleming, &c., as regards that of the 
mate, particularly here. He has been retained by the consul to help him, I 
may say, in this lawless persecution against an old ship-master, well known 
all over the world, with a large family in the city of New York, now in 
the greatest distress on account of his absence. 


* The underscorings {italics, &c.) in this letter made by N. P. T. 




62 


I farther beg leave to add, that the consul availed himself of my igno¬ 
rance of the Spanish language ; making it appear as if I had resisted the or¬ 
ders of the Captain General, that the matter might be aggravated, as, unfor¬ 
tunately for me, it has happened. 

Malice and a vindictive feeling have accompanied the consul, as I shall 
be able to prove in due time. 

In the mean while, I beg your kind and respectable interference with the 
chief authorities, in order that I may be set at liberty, and be able to put to 
right my innocence; which it is impossible for me to do whilst I am suffer¬ 
ing this cruel and hard imprisonment. 

I have the honor to remain your obedient servant, 

A. WENDELL, Jr. 

To the Commander of the U. S. ship Boston , at Havana. 

Havana, San Juan de Dios Hospital Prison,* 

December 6, 1838. 

Sir : I arrived at this port on Sunday, 4th August ultimo, from Boston, 
commander of the American brig Sarah Ann Alley, with a cargo to differ¬ 
ent consignees, among which was 369 Spanish doubloons. On Monday, 
the 5th of August aforesaid, 1 made my entry at the custom-house, and 
went on board of my vessel, and found my trunk had been robbed of $293, 
part of my clothes, and I supposed the said 369 doubloons were also taken ; 
and went on shore and reported the same to my consignees and the author¬ 
ities, and made my protest “ accordingly.” Some time after which, I found 
the 369 doubloons in another trunk. Being mortified at the occurrence of the 
discovery and inadvertence, I omitted to mention it to my consignees, and 
kept it on board, with the knowledge of the mate and cook, intending, just 
as I was about leaving port, to deliver it to the proper consignee. But 
whilst I was under charge of Dr. Bumstead, sick on shore, my mate, Mr. 
Bowden, now the commander of the said brig, came on shore and reported 
to the authorities that I had the 369 doubloons still on board of my vessel j 
which occasioned the authorities arresting and carrying me on board for the 
purpose of taking the money; after taking 355 doubloons, my trunk, desk, 
and cot, they brought me here, and afterwards imprisoned me at the Punta ; 
and yesterday I was attacked with a violent fever, when they removed me 
here, and, being a stranger and destitute of friends and means, I applied to 
the United States consul for assistance in my defence j but as he supposed 
I was convicted and condemned, he refused any aid to me. Afterward, I 
wrote to him there had been no trial in my case, and begged he would pro¬ 
tect me ; and the enclosed is his categorical and unfitting reply, which 
conduct can only be ascribed to the want of a sense of amiability and pro¬ 
per regard and esteem for his unfortunate countryman. If I have been so 
unfortunate as to fall into the hands of strangers, charged with wrong— 
friendless, penurious, without a knowledge of the language—am I to be 
abandoned by the representative of my country, and left at the mercy of 
those who will dispose of me as they fancy and dictate, even though sup¬ 
pose I had done wrong intentionally ? Am I to be abandoned without a friend 
to defend my lawful right ? 


The underscorings ( italics , &c.) in this letter made by N. P. Trist. 




63 


If I did not deliver the money after I found it, it was my intention to 
deliver it as 1 have stated. The laws of my country would not treat me as 
a criminal, even though I had never delivered the money ; but a civil pro¬ 
cess against me would have been the consequence. 

No sentence has yet been pronounced in my case, and I throw myself on 
your hands; and as the affair took place under the American flag, I desire 
you will request the Captain General to deliver me up to your authority, to 
be carried to the United States, where I may be examined, and if I am 
wrong Heaven knows I am not! but, nevertheless, I am willing to suffer 
J trial of the consequences, by a jury court. If 1 am compelled to submit to 
the dictates of the Auditor de Guerra’s judgment here, without the means 
of defending myself, I apprehend my fate will be doubtful. I am a native 
of Saco, Maine, and married there ; and feel it my duty to use all lawful 
means of obtaining my liberty, in order by my labor to maintain my 
family and aged mother. I can produce abundance of testimony in my 
favor, regarding my moral character and upright habits; all the world, 
that will speak the truth, can testify that I have been industrious, char¬ 
itable, and honorable from my infancy ; and I am thus advanced to 
middle age, connected in one of the most respectable families, and to be 
abandoned by the community, and suffer condemnation to prison for life, 
alleged simply with an intention to do wrong. I hope, sir, that your gen¬ 
erosity and sense of duty to an affected and penitent countryman will 
revolt at the unmerciful and insignificant reply of the United States con- 
' su h N. P. Trist, in his laconic communication of the 1st instant, in 
which he concludes by saying, in these words: “ You are giving yourself 
needless trouble in writing to me” I would ask, sir, if I were a confirm¬ 
ed and notorious criminal in the United States, and incarcerated, and 
had no means of defending myself, and applied to the proper authority 
for help and protection, would it be humane, or according to the policy 
of our institutions, to sneer and scoff at my helpless and humble suppli¬ 
cations ? I reply, no, sir; but sympathy would be responded, and the honor¬ 
able judge and jury would glory in helping, as long as there was the 
slightest shadow of hope of proving innocence. Perhaps, sir, the United 
States consul thinks himself barely protected in his reply, in consequence 
of my having signified to him that 1 considered it a crime to hold the 
money on freight a few days, and fortifies his intentions and clears his 
behavior in the estimation of the public. But, sir, this is but a pitiful 
excuse for his imperious neglect of his high duties ; and I beg, sir, that 
you will request his excellency the Captain General of this metropolis to 
deliver me to your charge, to be delivered into the hands of the proper 
authorities in the United States, where I can arrange my affairs, and in¬ 
demnify my owner for the loss sustained in this affair, by the civil law¬ 
suit and detention of his vessel. The whole of the 369 doubloons has 
been delivered, and the cost of the civil court paid; therefore there is no 
claim against me whatever in this realm; and I could soon satisfy all at 
home, were 1 to go there again. Asking your generous intercession in my 
behalf, and praying ever to Almighty God to save me from the intended 
destiny of the authorities here, 

I am, sir, your afflicted and humble obedient servant, 

LOVE STRAW. 

To the Commander of the American ship of war Boston. 


64 


' Cavanahs,* December 4, 1838. 


Sir : We take the liberty of writing to you, to let you know the distressed 
state that we are left in. We are of the crew that came here in the ship 
William Engs, of Newport; we shipped in her in Liverpool, but signed 
no articles; our agreement was to call at Havana and to New Orleans , 
and to be paid off. After we had been some time in harbor, we were told 
by the mate that the ship was going to St. Petersburg ; we told the cap¬ 
tain that we wished to have our discharge here, as the ship was not going 
according to our agreement, and that we had not signed no articles. He 
said he would make us pay our passage, and ordered the mates not to allow 
any boats alongside ; and he would not allow us on shore on a Sunday to 
see the consul; and we had nothing but the worst of treatment, both on the 
passage and in port. And on the 9th of July the ship had part of her 
cargo in, we told him that we wanted to see the consul before we did any 
more duty; when he came on deck, he called us aft, and seized hold of 
one of us to seize him up to flog him, and brought pistols and cutlasses on 
deck, and called the captain of the Guatemala Packet on board, with pis- 
tols, to their assistance; the rest of the crew were all on the forecastle, 
until the man called for us to save his life. We went aft, and begged him 
not to ill-use him ; he then struck two of us with the pistol, and cut us very 
ill. We went forward; he then sent for soldiers, and sent us to prison, 
where we [were] kept until the 29th of August; they then sent [us] for two 
years to the chain gang, and one of us for four, where we have been kept 
destitute of clothes, except a shirt and trousers we had on when we came on 
shore, until ten days ago Mr. War brought us part of our clothes quite 
useless and what was of any use; he gave a little money to get something to 
eat ) which we were very much in want of, for we were almost famished with 
hunger. If your honor will be kind enough to let an officer come to see 
us, we will be forever thankful to you. There are three others who were 
put here for six years, because they had their knives in their sheaths on 
shore, were taken up and sent here ; their ships have taken their clothes 
with them, and left them destitute of clothes, except the shirt and trousers 
they had on when taken up. If you will take us out of this place, we will 
enter for the service, if we would be accepted ; if you will relieve us, we 
will forever pray. 

We remain your humble petition rs, 


John Taylor, 
Isaac Clark, 


James Burnett, 
James Stephens, 
William Johnson, 
George Williams. 


Nicholas Nelson 
John McKenzie, 
John Broadfoot, 


[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 2.] 


Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana , December 10, 1838. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, to day, of your favor 
of yesterday’s date, enclosing copies of three communications from Cap- 


* The underscoring ( italics ) in this letter, made by N. P. Trist. 




65 


tain Abraham Wendell, jr., Captain Love Straw, and certain seamen of the 
ship William Engs and schooner Henry Clay. 

In regard to the two former, they have already taken up so much of my time 
that it is impossible for me to bestow any upon them on the present occa¬ 
sion, further than to assure you that nothing that they can utter is deserving 
of the least credence. At the head of the list of persons referred to by 
Captain Wendell, is the name of a merchant, the most dirty and sneaking 
knave known to me, by reputation, in all Havana; the second, Dr. Bum- 
stead, is a bosom friend of the first, and a character of the deepest infamy; 
and the third is, according to all appearances, a congenial spirit with the 
other two. This being the case, it is due that his name (which seems to have 
been misspelled by Captain Wendell) should be correctly given: it is not 
Troup, but Throop —Oramel H. Throop, once of New York, the nephew 
of a respectable man, now charge of the United States at Naples, and, very 
probably, also the son of respectable parents. 

In regard to the seamen, the case is different. Those of the William Engs 
were arrested by the authorities of the place, at a call from their captain ; 
prosecuted for mutiny, convicted, and condemned. As to the fact of the 
mutiny, or conflict, on board the ship, there can be no doubt. With regard to 
its origin, the story told by them is, I am sorry to say, but too probable on 
the face of it—judging from my experience of such matters. If true, the 
captain ought to be now engaged in cracking stones in their stead. Upon 
becoming aware of their account of the affair, which was not until after 
their condemnation, my belief in its probability led me to take steps in their 
behalf, which will, I hope, be attended, before long, with a favorable result. 

The case of the three men arrested, tried, and convicted for wearing 
pointed knives on shore, is a melancholy, but altogether unavoidable, instance 
of the rigor of law. The rigid execution of the law against wearing 
pointed knives was the chief means by which General Tacon established 
absolute and perfect security of person here, in the place of the murders 
which were of daily, almost hourly, occurrence. These men have come 
under the law, as numberless others have done; and they are now suffering 
the penalty. It is a severe one, however ; and their case has received, and 
will continue to receive, my attention. Had the circumstances been such 
as to afford any possibility that your co-operation with me could be of any 
avail, it would have been called for. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

Edward B. Babbit, Esq., 

Commanding U. S. ship Boston. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 3.] 

United States sloop of war Boston, 

Havana , January 11, 1839. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication 
of the 10th December last. It being left with a grocer* I did not receive it 
until the morning of my leaving this port. 

The object of my communication respecting the imprisonment of masters 
and seamen of vessels under the flag of the United States was to obtain in¬ 
formation as to the crimes they had committed. 


* The underscorings (italics) in this letter were made by the writer, 

B—5 




66 


As regards the seamen belonging tcf the William Engs, I observe, by your 
statement, that is a case of mutiny. I have, therefore, to offer a passage for 
the seamen belonging to the United States who may have been guilty of a 
crime of so serious a nature. J believe in such cases they are amenable to 
the laws of the United States, and have to hope you may represent their 
case to his excellency the Captain General, and, if possible, to have them 
sent to the United States, where they may receive due justice and punish¬ 
ment from the tribunals of their country. 

In respect to the last observation in your communication, “ that if any co¬ 
operation of mine could be of any avail, it would have been called for,” I 
merely have to observe that the commanders of ships of war of the United 
States are sent to the different foreign ports for the protection of our com¬ 
mercial interests and the citizens of the United States; and in whatever 
port I may anchor the ship under my command, I shall at all times hear the 
complaints of my countrymen, and use all my endeavors to have justice 
done them, without being called upon by the United States consul for my 
interference. 

I shall leave here to-morrow, or next day, for Pensacola. Any commu¬ 
nications you may have for the commander of the United States forces on 
this station, 1 shall be happy to take charge of. 

I have the honor to be, respectfully, your obedient servant, 

EDWARD B. BABBIT, Commander. 

To N. P. Trist, Esq,, 

U. IS. Consul , Havana. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 4.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana , January 12, 1839. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of the 
11th instant, which, in consequence of its having been left at the rooms oc¬ 
cupied as my consulate, subsequently to my departure from them, upwards 
of an hour after the close of office hours, did not come to hand until to¬ 
day. 

I regret that the urgency of the demands upon my time should be such 
as barely to allow me to snatch enough from them to make this acknowl¬ 
edgment of the receipt of your letter, without entering into the explanations 
which I should otherwise offer in reply to such parts of it as call for them. 

Thanking you for the offer to take charge of any communications I 
might have (t have none) for the commander of the United States forces on 
this station, I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

Edward B. Babbit, Esq., 

Commanding TJ. IS. sloop Boston. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 5.} 

United States sloop of war Boston, 

Havana , January 16,1839. 

Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communica¬ 
tion of the 12th instant, and regret that your pressure of business is so 
great as to prevent an explanation respecting the case of American seamen 


67 


now confined here for mutinous conduct on board of and under the fla? of 
the United States. 5 

Such offences, committed under our flag 1 , are only cognizable to the courts 
of our own Government; and I have still to hope you may use your influ¬ 
ence to have them sent to the United States for a trial, that they may re¬ 
ceive the punishment due to their crimes. 

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

EDWARD B. BABBIT, 

m „ Commander U. 8. Navy, U. 8. ship Boston. 

To N. P. Trist, Esq., r 

U. 8. Consul , Havana. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 6.] 

United States sloop of war Boston, 

Havana harbor , February 5, 1839. 

Sir: Herewith you will receive the copy of a communication which I 
have this day addressed to his excellency the Captain General of Cuba 
enclosing a report from P. A. Southall, purser of this ship, stating that he 
has been, without any provocation upon his part, attacked and wounded in 
the neck and hand, by one of the dragoon guard of the Government, on the 
2d instant. 

I have therefore to request that you will, in your official capacity, as 
consul of the United States, use all means in your power with the proper 
authorities here, to bring to speedy punishment the offender of this lawless < 
and outrageous attack upon an officer of the United States Government; 
and that an example may be made in the present instance, which in future 
will prevent a like occurrence and insult being perpetrated, and afford to 
our officers and citizens in general that respect and protection which they 
have a right to demand. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

EDWARD B. BABBIT, Commander. 

To N. P. Trist, Esq., 

U. 8. Consul , Havana . 

United States ship Boston, 

Havana , February 3, 1839. 

Sir: I am under the necessity of reporting to you a circumstance of a 
disagreeable nature which transpired with regard to myself last night, that 
I may, through your hands, seek that redress which the aggravated circum¬ 
stances of the case require. 

On leaving the ship last night, in company with some of the officers and 
the gentlemen who had dined with us, I proceeded to the “ Theatre Tacon,” 
Mr. Sturgis and I being in a volante, and preceded by the rest of company 
a little in advance, also in volantes ; when only a short distance outside of 
the walls, for some cause, (I know not what,) the volante in which we were 
was stopped by one of the mounted guards, and not allowed to proceed, 
even after being told by Mr. Sturgis that it was our wish to visit the theatre. 

We were nevertheless ordered back. Getting out of the volante, I discharged 
the fare; whereupon, without any altercation or provocation on my part, 
the guard charged upon and endeavored to ride over me, at the same time 


68 


wounding me in the neck by a thrust from a lance with which he was 
armed, and which was repeated again, injuring me in the hand, in a man¬ 
ner sufficient to counteract the use of the member, at least for a time—and 
this, too, after I had informed him that I was an American officer, which 
my uniform sufficiently indicated. I could make no resistance, being un¬ 
armed and defenceless. My situation created much excitement among the 
crowd which it attracted, and upon whose interference the guard desisted 
and withdrew. I proceeded shortly afterwards to the theatre, where I join¬ 
ed my friends, who had been admitted without difficulty. The circumstance 
having reached the ears of the Lieutenant Governor, who was at the theatre, 
he thereupon sent for me and requested a statement of the affair, that it 
might be inquired into, assuring me that every satisfaction should be ren¬ 
dered me. 

I have only to add further, that Mr. Sturgis witnessed the whole transac¬ 
tion, and is prepared to add his evidence to my statement; also, to give you 
the names of three gentlemen, residents of the city, who were present, and 
who kindly visited me to day, for the purpose of handing in their names as 
witnesses in my favor, viz: Jose Pimentel, Manuel de Urrutea, and Pedro 
Gordillo. 

I have felt it my duty, sir, to make this report, as much for the principle 
embraced in the insult thus offered to an American officer, as for my own 
private feelings. Your own judgment will indicate the course to be pur¬ 
sued. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

PEYTON A. SOUTHALL, Purser. 

To Edward B. Babbit, Esq., 

Commanding U. S. ship Boston. 

United States sloop of war Boston, 

Harbor of Havana , February 4, 1839. 

Most excellent Sir : I have the honor to enclose a statement from 
an officer of the United States ship under my command, complaining of a 
violent and wanton assault made upon him by a dragoon, near the Ta- 
con theatre, which nearly deprived said officer of|life—a thrust from a 
lance passing through his neck and clothes, which wound is doubtful of 
its termination; together with another thrust from the same dragoon, 
which wounded him severely in the hand. The officer named several 
persons belonging to your excellency’s Government who were present 
when the occurrence took place. I have to hope that your excellency 
may be pleased to have an investigation of the affair, and that due jus¬ 
tice may be done upon the offender k who committed this lawless attack, 
without any provocation, upon an officer of the United States Government. 

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your excellency’s 
most obedient servant, 

EDWD. B. BABBIT, Commander. 

To His Excellency the Captain General 

and Governor of the island of Cuba, fyc., 6pc., fyc. 


69 


[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 7.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana, February 6, 1839. 

Sir : I have to acknowledge the receipt, a few minutes ago, (it being 
now meridian,) of your letter under date of yesterday, enclosing a copy 
of that addressed by you to his excellency the Captain General, on the 
subject of the outrage committed on the night of the 2d instant, upon 
the person of Mr. Southall, the purser of the ship under your command. 

This letter happened to be delivered at my office just as I entered it 
upon my return from a visit to his excellency; during which I had been 
informed, with reference to the communication received by him from you, 
that he-had ordered an inquiry into the matter ; which order 1 had alrea¬ 
dy been apprized of by his excellency, yesterday, about the middle of the 
day, previously to his receiving your communication. 

On that occasion, as I was about to retire, after concluding the business 
upon which I had called upon him, the subject was introduced by his ex¬ 
cellency, with the remark, that an incident had occurred a few evenings 
ago, which might have been attended with consequences of the most 
serious nature ; and although these had not occurred, yet the matter was, 
in itself, so grave a one as to make it impossible for him to allow it to pass 
off in silence ; and that he had, consequently, ordered it to be made the sub¬ 
ject of a regular inquiry, although not with a view to any complaint on his 
part. It was indispensable, however, his excellency went on to say, that a 
more discreet course should be observed towards sentinels. A soldier put 
on post had gio latitude whatever. Strict conformity with his instructions 
was the law of his very existence; and to force a sentinel, or to offer him 
violence, was therefore an impossibility; and this was a truth which they 
had a right to expect that a military man, at least, would never lose sight 
of. He cannot be forgetful that a sentry cannot but do what he has been 
put on post to do ; nor could those who place a man in a position of that 
nature be forgetful of the protection which they owe him. 

Such was the import of his excellency’s remarks ; and, upon my com¬ 
mencing my reply, by observing that no official communication of the 
occurrence had been made to me, his excellency remarked that this cor¬ 
responded with his expectation, which was, that the subject would not 
be stirred. Resuming my reply, I stated that, although officially in the 
dark on the subject, yet I had heard an account of the matter, (the cor¬ 
rectness of which I entertained no doubt of,) that differed totally from 
the version his excellency had received; inasmuch as it went to show 
that the assault on the part of the lancer was brutal and altogether un¬ 
provoked, and that witnesses were not wanting to establish the fact. To 
this his excellency, evincing much surprise, replied that witnesses had 
been examined, and that they corroborated the soldier’s statement; that 
an attempt to force his post had been made, and persisted in, until it had 
gone so far that a stick was raised, against him ; that arms were not car¬ 
ried to be used on trivial occasions, and the soldiery were always under 
the strictest injunctions to that effect; and that, so far as he knew, from 
the result of every inquiry that had arisen oh such points, those injunc¬ 
tions were attended with the desired effect, and the utmost forbearance 
was shown by the soldiery. 

The receipt of your communication having now put it in my power to 


70 


officially address his excellency on the subject, I shall lose no time in 
doing so. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

To Edward B. Babbit, Esq., 

Commanding the U. S. ship Boston. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 8.] 

Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana , February 6, 1839. 

Having this day received from the commander of the United States ship 
Boston a copy of the communication addressed by him to your excellency, 
under date the 4th instant, enclosing the report made by the officer of that 
ship who was wounded on the night of the 2d, by one of the lancers on 
guard in the vicinity of the Teatro Tacon, I beg leave to call your excel¬ 
lency’s attention to a fact stated in that report, (the truth of which can, I 
feel certain, be established by the most conclusive testimony ,) which is ir¬ 
reconcilable with the idea that the assault was, as has been alleged, ren¬ 
dered unavoidable by a pertinacious attempt on the part of the officer to 
force the post which his assailant was set to guard. Upon this point it is, 
if upon any, that the lancer’s justification must turn ; for while it may be 
conceded in his favor that a sentinel is under the impossibility of allowing 
his post to be forced, it is equally incontrovertible that resistance to such a 
proceeding constitutes the only possible justification of a resort to murder¬ 
ous weapons—above all, on an occasion like that. m 

The circumstance which affords the sole pretext for the allegation of an 
attempt to force by the guard, consists in the mere taking of that road by 
the driver of a hired volante, of whose motions the gentlemen within the 
carriage had no knowledge whatever, except that he was taking them to 
the theatre. 

A party, consisting principally of officers from the American and British 
vessels of war now in the harbor, having determined to visit the theatre, 
took volantes for that purpose. The hindmost of the train was that occu¬ 
pied by the officer in question, and his companion, Mr. Samuel P. Sturgis, 
of Boston, recently arrived from Mexico, charged with communications for 
the Government of the United States, in his Britannic Majesty’s ship Corn¬ 
wallis. Just after passing through the gate, the order in which the car¬ 
riages had set out remaining unaltered, and all the others being conse¬ 
quently ahead of theirs, they felt the latter suddenly stop; and, upon look¬ 
ing out to ascertain the cause, perceived a lancer malting very free use of his 
lance upon the driver and his horse—for what reason, they were at a loss 
to comprehend. They first endeavored to make the lancer understand 
that they wished to proceed to the Teatro Tacon; but, discovering that, 
fof some cause or other, he was requiring of the driver to return the way 
he came, and enforcing this order in a very brutal manner, they alighted 
from the volante, and the officer discharged it, paying the driver liberally, 
through consideration for the treatment he had suffered. 

This having been done, (vMiich it could not have been without a pause 
in the storm of brutality which had so unexpectedly burst upon them.) the 
driver was in the act of withdrawing his carriage from the prohibited 
ground, leaving the two gentlemen at a spot where persons without num- 


71 


ber were passing to and from the theatre, whither it was their purpose to 
proceed on foot. 

It was at this moment, and under these circumstances, that the assault 
took place, with the too obvious intention to kill; which your excellency 
will be disgusted to learn was openly encouraged by a voice from the 
crowd, that, with bitter oaths and imprecations against “ the English ,” 
called out “ kill him ” “ kill him in reply to the general cry of u shame, 
shame” “ a stranger . a stranger ,”by which the crowd endeavored to bring 
the lancer to his senses. 

The moment and the circumstances preclude the idea that the man was 
acting in defence of his post, or under a sense of duty in any respect. 
Whatever pretext might have been afforded for this, in the first instance, 
by the mistake of the driver in taking a prohibited road, that pretext was 
past and gone. Nothing remained to which the attempted butchery can be 
ascribed, unless it be viewed as a mere outbreak of savage rage; which, 
not improbably, may have been excited by previous occurrences of the 
night, and now only burst forth. To me, upon the most dispassionate 
consideration of the statements from various sources which have come to 
my ears, it seems but too obvious that this is the conviction to which a fair 
trial of the man must lead. That the subject is of a nature to demand the 
most thorough sifting, is a point which it would be altogether superfluous 
for me to press ; aware, as 1 am, from my knowledge of your excellency’s 
particular views on this subject, no less than your general character, of the 
deep sense you entertain of the duty, not only to repress all disposition to 
outrage on the part of the soldiery, but to inculcate and enforce upon them 
the observance of the extreme of moderation and forbearance in the trying 
positions in which they are not unfrequently placed. 

Of the witnesses named in the report of the wounded officer, I would ask, 
as a favor, that the testimony of Mr. Sturgis, of Boston, be taken at the 
earliest possible moment; and I will add to them a Mr. Barthelemi, a 
Frenchman, who, I learned late this evening, was on the spot, accompanied 
by his wife, and an eye-witness of the occurrence. 

I have the honor to be, with the highest consideration, your excellency’s 
obedient servant, 

N. P. TRIST. 

His Excellency Don Joaq.uin de Espeleta, &c. 

Captain General , fyc. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 9.] 

U. S. ship Boston, 

Havana , April 4, 1839. 

Sir: I herewith have the honor to enclose a communication from the 
Captain General respecting the case of Mr. Southall. 

I have to request you may be pleased to demand* of the Captain Gen¬ 
eral copies of the testimony given in the case, in order that I may lay 
them before the Government of the United States, to show them the wan¬ 
ton outrage committed upon an officer, and the redress which has been 
given for such an unprovoked attack. « 


* This word underscored by the writer. 




72 


If you think better, I will address the Captain General likewise upon the 
subject. 

I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

EDWD. B. BABBIT, 


N. P. Trist, Esq., 

U. S. Consul , Havana. 


Commander. 


[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 10.] 


Consulate of the United States of America, 

Havana , April 4, 1839. 

Sir : 1 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communica¬ 
tion of this date, enclosing one from the Captain General respecting the 
case of Mr. Southall, and informing me that you have to request you [IJ 
may be pleased to demand of the Captain General copies of the testimony 
given in the case.” In reply to which, I have to state, Jirst, that the terms 
in which it is conveyed implying a pretension on your part to dictate the 
nature and the tone of the communications to be addressed by me to the 
Captain General, I cannot, consistently with my sense of duty, pass it over 
without noticing and repelling it; secondly , that had you seen fit, at the 
outset of this business, to call for my advice and assistance, they would 
have been cheerfully rendered ; but, from the course which you have 
judged proper to pursue, I deem it proper and necessary now to decline 
taking any part whatever, whether at your dictation or at your request, in 
your proceedings with regard to it. 

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 


Edwd. B. Babbit, Esq., 

Commanding U. S. ship Boston. 


N. P. TRIST. 


[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 11.] 

U. S. sloop of war Boston, 
Harbor of Havana, April 11, 1839. 

Sir : I had the honor of receiving, on the same day of its date, your let¬ 
ter'd the 5th* instant; and to which I now beg leave to reply, and at the 
same time to notice more particularly your proceedings in relation to the 
affair of the seamen of the William Engs. 

In taking a retrospective view of the peculiar tone and character of your 
several letters, I feel constrained, under all the circumstances, to add that 
it is a matter of amazement and deep concern with me, that you have been 
able to extract from my letters, or my conduct in the business referred to, 
any disrespect to your official duties, or any unnecessary or improper in¬ 
terference with your consular prerogative. 

What I have done was dictated by the feelings of an American citizen, 
and by my sense of duty as an American officer—feelings which I hope may 
vibrate in the bosom of every one who has the honor of sustaining the flacr 
of the country, and the proud appellation of an American citizen ; feelings 


is 10 *• now ,ha,an the 





73 


which I would not exchange for those which seem to have governed your 
official conduct, whenever the wants, wishes, and interests of your injured 
countrymen were at stake. 

I regret deeply that the circumstances connected with both grievances, 
touching which we have communicated, seemed imperiously to require my 
action. It appears very clear that the seamen of the William Engs would 
have been held longer in the most servile and ignominious imprisonment 
and employment by and for the Government of Cuba, together with other 
citizens of the United States, but for my interposition in their behalf. 

It is true that in your letter to me of the 10th December, 1838, acknow¬ 
ledging the receipt of my letter of inquiry, you say, in effect, “ that, on hear¬ 
ing the seamen’s account of the affair, you were led to take such steps as 
you hoped would produce a favorable result.” Is it possible that it did not 
occur to you to hear the seamen’s account of the affair before you received 
my letter of inquiry and remonstrance ? 1 fear it did not; for it appears 
by a communication addressed by you to his excellency the Captain Gene¬ 
ral, now in my possession, that so far from interfering in behalf of the sea¬ 
men, and for procuring for them a hearing in their own country, (where 
was the appropriate jurisdiction for a trial of the alleged mutiny or revolt ,) 
you actually\ and to me it seems unnaturally , solicited from the Spanish 
Government a trial of your countrymen here, before a foreign court, by 
means of strange laws and forms, in an inquisitorial manner, and that in a 
language they did not understand; thereby incurring their condemnation, 
and inflicting upon them a punishment cruel, oppressive , and ignominious. 

I shall leave it to my Government, and to my fellow-citizens at home, to 
say whether my interference in this respect was not imperiously demanded; 
and to determine whether there was more patriotism, or more cold -hearted 
indifference, or more calculating judgment, in your proceedings in the case 
in question. 

As to the unfortunate affair of Purser Southall, I feel bound to say that 
your apathy and indifference is equalled only by the singular and contra¬ 
dictory character of your correspondence. 

From the tenor of your letter to me of the 6th of February, it appears 
that, after the commission of the outrage, you had a conversation or com¬ 
munication with his excellency the Captain General upon the subject, in 
which you seem to agree that an officer in the naval service of the United 
States had been causelessly and wantonly attacked and wounded by a 
Spanish soldier, and that you yourself did not feel bound to take any move¬ 
ment in the affair. By your letter of the 5th instant, because it had not 
been made the subject of special complaint to you, his excellency and the 
American consul, according to your account, rested content that the indig¬ 
nity and injury would be overlooked. And you, too, appear satisfied with a 
homily sent or made you by his excellency on the duties of Spanish sen¬ 
tries. " You were, moreover, pleased to add, that now that I had addressed 
you on the subject, you would communicate officially upon the subject. 
Two months and upwards have elapsed, during which time I have antici¬ 
pated your official communication to his excellency might have produced a 
result somewhat different from that which his excellency and you arrived 
at in the inference above referred to. I am now truly disappointed, and 
am astounded to find that his excellency has given you more reasons for 
passing over that matter in silence. On the 4th instant, I therefore ad¬ 
dressed you what I conceived to be a respectful communication, desiring 


74 


you to demand a copy of the testimony in the case, that it might be laid 
before the American Government for their consideration. To my surprise 
and regret, I received your abrupt reply of the same date, declining to co-t 
operate with me in procuring justice from the Spanish Government, and 
giving me to understand that the weight of your official influence would 
be thrown against your fellow-countrymen. 

The only reason you assign for this strange and unexpected determina¬ 
tion is, that you were not authorized in the first instance. Can it be pos¬ 
sible you are satisfied with such an excuse ? If an outrage committed 
upon an American citizen by a foreign Government, near which you are I 
a national agent and protector, comes to your ears, are you justified in ab¬ 
staining from a redress, merely because your dignity is not in the first 
place properly propitiated by the party aggrieved ? Why, sir, permit me 
to ask, did it not occur to you that the original application ought to have 
been to you, before you received my letter of the 4th instant, and at which 
your dignity seems so much humiliated ? On the 5th day of February, I 
addressed you on the subject, enclosing Purser Southall’s report to me, and 
also a copy of my communication with his excellency. In the reply, you 
found no fault with my having already complained to his excellency. 
There was no allegation of disrespect to you, or declaration of your refu¬ 
sal to do your duty because you had not been originally consulted. I now 
was led to believe that you would do all the nature of the case and your 
official situation would.require of you, and was kept under that reasonable 
supposition until the receipt of your extraordinary letter of the 4th instant. 
Your slumbering sense of neglect and disrespect must have been strangely 
awakened since the 5th day of February, or else your promised official 
communication with the Government must have been a masterpiece of 
diplomatic arrangement. 

In conclusion, allow me to assure you, it matters not what may have 
been the tone of your highly exceptionable letter alluded to, it shall not 
deter me from acting and feeling as every American should always feel 
and act—ever ready and willing, under all circumstances, and in every sit¬ 
uation, whether as an officer or private citizen, at home or in a foreign 
land, to lend my feeble aid in endeavoring to mitigate the sufferings of my 
injured countrymen, and to repel, at all and every hazard, the slightest 
intentional insult offered to my national flag, or the oppressions of our 
citizens. 

I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, 

EDWARD B. BABBIT, 

Commander U. S. N.. U. S. S. Boston. 

To N. P. Trist, Esq., 

United States Consul , Havana. 

[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 14.—Being a translation of sub-enclosures Nos. 12 & 13.J 
[translation of no. 12.] 

Captain Generalcy of the ever faithfuj. Island of Cuba. 

In the sumaria* instituted to ascertain the truth of the occurrence which 
took place on the night of the 2d of February last, between Mr. Peyton A. 

* This is a name given to the proceedings of inquiry as to matters of fact: such as the taking 
ol testimony, reducing it to writing, re-examination and confrontation of witnesses. 





75 


Southall, purser of the United States corvette Boston, and the soldier Fruc- 
tuoso Silos, who was posted as a sentinel in the neighborhood of the Ta- 
eon theatre, the Auditor of War has, under date the 12th instant, given to 
me the following opinion : 

Most excellent sir : The history of the disagreeable occurrence which 
occasioned the formation of this sumaria is accurately and clearly com¬ 
piled in the foregoing fiscal opinion. In it are shown the faults committed 
by the foreigners, Messrs. Peyton and Samuel, in disobeying the order which 
i was repeatedly given to them by a sentinel, in fulfilment of the orders un- 
j. der which he was posted, and assailing him with harsh language, and even 
threats, which denoted the state in which they were, and which gave rise 
to the excess that followed on the part of the' sentinel in making a hasty 
use of the weapon which he held. If it be -true that consideration is due 
to the important circumstance that these foreigners were ignorant of the 
language of the country, and, for that reason, might be not fully aware of 
the gravity of the fault into which they fell ; neither can it be lost sight of, 
that, being military officers of the United States, as they claim to be, they 
neither can nor ought to be ignorant of the respect due to a sentinel in 
their own country, which is the same that he is entitled to by our military 
code, and that of all civilized nations; and that the moral force, whereof a 
soldier in that position is the representative, imperiously requires that he 
be obeyed by all. If he be not, the offence committed is not against the 
soldier, but is a profanation offered to the power of the State represented 
by his arms. Nor can that be deemed a sufficient excuse which they have 
alleged, that they believed him not to be a sentinel; when his character as 
such could not be mistaken, he being in the discharge of his duty on horse¬ 
back, and bearing a visible weapon. Considering, also, the other grounds 
set forth in the fiscal opinion, the summary disposal of the case recom¬ 
mended therein appears to me accordant with justice, imposing upon the 
soldier, Fructuoso Silos, one month’s arrest, and warning him that in fu¬ 
ture he abstain in like cases from making use of his weapon, which is al¬ 
lowable to a sentinel only in extraordinary and grave cases. And with re¬ 
gard to the said foreigners, that they be admonished, as is recommended, 
through the proper channel, to the end that, in future, conduct of this na¬ 
ture be avoided. 

“I abstain from commenting upon, and calling the attention of your ex¬ 
cellency to, the communication from the consul of the United States, which 
occupies folio 37. Very ill informed with regard to the occurrence, and to 
all the particulars belonging to it, that gentleman raised his complaint to a 
height to which it could not nor cannot reach. Being so manifest a mis¬ 
take, resting solely upon the false and sinister communication of some ma¬ 
licious person anxious to interrupt the harmony existing between the in¬ 
habitants of Cuba and the citizens of the American Union, it will prove 
for that gentleman an opportune reminiscence to guard him against other 
captious denunciations. Such is my opinion.” 

And having adopted it, I transcribe it to your lordship for your knowl¬ 
edge, and in consequence of your letter of the 6th of February. 

God preserve your lordship many years.—Havana, 19th of March, 1839. 

JOAQUIN DE ESPELETA. 

To the Consul General of the U. & of America. 


76 


[translation op no. 13.J 

Captain Generalcy of the ever faitheul Island of Cuba. 

Under this date, I say to the commander of the United States -sloop of 
war Boston, Don Edward Babbit, what follows : 

“ I have received your lordship’s official letter of the 4th instant, wherein, 
in virtue of the relation made to you by various persons of the occurrence 
between an officer of the vessel under your command and a sentry posted 
at the Tacon theatre, you ask me to transmit to you a copy of the suma- 
ria (proceedings of inquiry) which has been instituted, in order to present 
it to your Government. It is not possible for me to accede to your wishes, 
from their being in opposition to the laws which govern Spanish tribunals, 
as is stated in the opinion given by the Auditor of War of this Captain 
Generalcy, with your said communication before him ; of which opinion 
I enclose to your lordship a copy (marked No. 1.) But, in the document num¬ 
bered 2, which is a copy of the report made by the fiscal judge charged 
with this case, an exact compendium will be found of its whole history ; 
to communicate which is as much as I can do to fulfil, in part, the wishes 
expressed in your said communication, to which this is my reply.” 

Which I transcribe to your lordship (enclosing, also, copies of the same 
documents) for your knowledge, and as a continuation of my letter of the 
19th ultimo, on the subject of this same occurrence. 

God preserve your lordship many years.—Havana, 8th of April, 1839. 

JOAQUIN DE ESPELETA. 

To the Consul General of the U. S. of America. 

[translation.] 

No. 1. 

Report of Antonio Armero, Auditor of War , to the Captain General , with 
the Captain General’s decree approving and adopting it. 

Most excellent Sir: The petition addressed to your excellency by 
the commander of the United States sloop-of-war Boston, presents a serious 
objection, which forbids that your excellency should accede to his wishes 
in the terms proposed by him. The laws which govern Spanish tribunals 
do not permit the extraction of literal copies of the causes followed up be¬ 
fore them, except only in the cases where an appeal to supreme tribunals, 
established by the same laws, is allowed to the individual feeling himself 
aggrieved. But such copies cannot be granted for other objects special or 
foreign from this; much less for that of subjecting them to the criticism or 
censorship of a foreign Government, which is avowed in the communica¬ 
tion of said commander. 

The - cause instituted in this Captain Generalcy, to which reference is 
here had, has been brought to its conclusion by the determination dictated 
by justice; and of this your excellency has informed the said commander, 
conveying to him a copy of said determination. Belying, nevertheless, 
upon the vague account given to him extrajudicially, by some individuals, 
of the occurrence which gave rise to the proceedings, that account would 
seem better entitled to credit from him than the scrupulous investigation 
made with all the solemnities, impartiality, and care required by the laws, 


77 


and by a proper administration of justice. So strange an error is ascribable 
only to some hidden cause, whereby it may have been attempted, through 
malice, to preoccupy his mind. But as your excellency feels so lively an 
interest in disabusing him from such a mistake, and as this, fortunately, 
may be easily done without infringing the law, the Auditor sees no objec¬ 
tion to your excellency’s being pleased to order the transmission to said 
commander of a perfect copy of the fiscal’s report ; in which document is 
faithfully summed up the history of the whole case, embracing the exam¬ 
ination of witnesses, the nature of the proof, and the punishment or correc- 
J d° n . recommended by this ministry; which, from its being conformable to 
justice, was adopted in the determination taken. By this means your excel¬ 
lency may render the undeceiving of said commander compatible with the 
observance of the laws. Saving, &c.—Havana, 5th of April, 1839. 

ANTONIO ARMERO. 

Havana, 8th of April, 1839. — Let it be done as is advised in the fore¬ 
going report, to which I conform. 

ESPELETA. 

A true copy : 

ALEXANDRO UE ARANA, Secretary . 
[translation.] 

No. 2. 

Report of Colonel Zurita , specially appointed by the Captain General 
the Juez Fiscal in the case of Purser Southall , to conduct the proceed¬ 
ings of inquiry into the truth of the matter. 

Most excellent Sir : Charged by your excellency to ascertain, in 
due form, the true causes which gave rise to the unpleasant occurrence that 
took place on the night of the 2d instant, in the neighborhood of the Ta- 
con theatre, between a soldier-sentinel of the regiment of King’s lancers 
and two individuals of the United States, I will make an exact though con¬ 
cise review of whatever concerning the subject has been brought to light 
by means of this proceeding. 

By the statements of Don Fernando Fuero, commanding officer of the 
picket that was on service ; of Don Mariano Muiios, second adjutant of the 
infantry regiment of Spain ; and of Don Peter Hogan, a private individual 
and native of Ireland, (hearsay witnesses;) and principally by eye-witnesses 
of the occurrence, who were Don Manuel de Moya, cornet of cavalry j Don 
Candido Frutos and Don Antonio Ponce de Leon, corporals of the patrol ; 
and Alexandro Ramos, a private of the regiment of Naples, (extending from 
folio 5 to 21;) it is proved that, between the hours of half-past ten and eleven 
of that night, they noticed that a hackney volante had stopped at the corner 
formed by the intersection of the Alameda (promenade) and the highway 
leading from the Monserrate gate by the Tacon theatre; and that the sen¬ 
tinel was calling out to the negro driver to go on, and not stop the way 
to other carriages ; to which, and notwithstanding also their urging it, it 
appears that two foreigners, who were in the volante, set themselves in 
opposition. The sentinel corroborating this evidence confesses (folio 24) 


78 


that, for this reason, he gave to the negro, for his disobedience, two blows 
with the butt-end of his lance; and that the negro answered that he was 
not to blame, but those two gentlemen. These, in great anger, hastily got 
out of the volante, and, with furious language, (which the witnesses did not 
understand,) the tallest, dressed in a frock coat and cap, (who has proved 
to be Mr. Peyton A. Southall, purser of the United States sloop of-war Bos¬ 
ton, now anchored in this port,) faced the sentinel, and threatened him with 
a whalebone stick which he carried; whilst his companion, Mr. Samuel 
P. Sturgis, by profession a merchant, caught hold sideways of the butt-end 
of the lance. At this moment, the soldier, seeing that not only his consigna / 
(orders) had been done violence to, but that he was about to be disarmed 
and assaulted, jerking his lance forward, cried out “ No one takes my lance 
from me,” and, couching it, gave various thrusts, in the course of which 
the said Mr. Peyton received two very slight wounds (the one situated in 
the left cervical region, and the other in the dorsal region of the left hand) 
of no importance, since in six days they were cicatrised, as is established 
by the scrupulous and minute inspection (recorded on folio 26) performed 
by the doctors in medicine Don Francisco Alonzo y Fernandez and Don 
Ramon de los Santos.* 

Mr. Peyton and Mr. Samuel being interrogated, (folio 27 to 39,) their tes¬ 
timony is seen to conflict with what has been made to appear by the other 
witnesses, in regard to the origin of the matter : for they affirm that, so soon 
as the sentinel ordered that the volante should go back, they obeyed with¬ 
out the slightest reply; that, at the distance of fifteen or twenty steps, they 
got out and dismissed the carriage, after paying the driver ; that, in a few 
minutes, the lancer came up without saying a word, and assaulted Mr. Pey¬ 
ton, who made no resistance; but, on the contrary, such was his submis¬ 
sion and patience, folded his arms, and, in his own language, expostulated 
with his aggressor, saying that he was an American officer, and pointing to 
his insignia as such. 

There are things, most excellent sir, which, in truth, are manifestly op¬ 
posed to reason and to the natural course of events ; as is the case with the 
two depositions of which I am speaking. For I do not comprehend why 
the sentinel caused that volante alone to return towards the Monserrate 
gate, when all others passed on towards the theatre, in accordance with the 
orders under which he was acting. Still less do I comprehend (supposing 
not the slightest resistance on the part of Mr. Peyton and his companion) 
for what purpose, after they had retired to so great a distance, the sentinel, 
opening a way through the dense crowd which had collected, should go 
straight up to these persons, unknown to him, who had in nothing offended 
him; and this, “ with the very obvious intention to kill” as has been ironi¬ 
cally supposed by some one—which words are to be seen in the translation 
of the official letter which occupies folio 37. 

The witnesses named by Mr. Peyton in his favor, as eye-witnesses of the 
occurrence, and who, on the day following, visited the ship Boston, moved by 
curiosity, and with the sole purpose, as they say, of learning how the wound¬ 
ed man was doing, are Don Pedro Gordillo, a clerk in the secretariat of the 


* The first named is at the head of the medical staff of the army, an honorary member of 
three of the societies of medicine and surgery of our country—Philadelphia, New York, and 
New Orleans. The second is a city practitioner of medicine and surgery. 


N. P. T. 




79 


army, the gentleman cadet Don Manuel de Urrutea, and the distinguished 
private Don Jose Pimentel, of the militia regiment of infantry of this place. 
These formally and expressly depose (from folio 39 to 45) that they cannot 
give any account of the beginning of the dispute, because they saw noth¬ 
ing of it; although they did hear say, in general terms, that it had been 
about a carriage. But, having noticed that many people were collecting in 
the highway, this attracted their attention ; and, drawing near to that point, 
they saw Don Jose Pimentel already engaged in conversation with a gen¬ 
tleman ; to whom, making himself understood as well as he was able, he 
was saying, Man , don't be headstrong ; come away with me , and don't 
misbehave to the sentinel. That, notwithstanding these entreaties, the 
American purser refused compliance; expressing himself in English, in 
loud and angry terms ; until a lancer came up on horseback, and, address¬ 
ing the person dressed in the frock-coat and cap, said to him: What! are 
you not going yet ? Well , non) you shall know what a sentinel is ! And, 
couching his lance, made one thrust at him, and returned forthwith to his 
post. 

And here, most excellent sir, not only do we perceive that there had 
been, before this, a beginning, involving headstrong resistance on the part 
of Mr. Peyton ; but it affords additional room for believing what has been 
deposed by the first witnesses, and for doubting the truth and ingenuousness, 
in a departure from which he and his companion, Mr. Samuel, appear to 
Jhave fallen, either through inattention, or in consequence of the heated state 
in which they were during this occurrence. Desirous of legally ascertain¬ 
ing whether there really had been any one who, insane and forgetful of 
duty, or excited by the crowd, had given vent, in angry cries, to curses 
against the English, with those exclamations— u shame! shame !" in reply 
to the general cry of £< kill him ! kill him ! a foreigner ! a foreigner !" 
(which are seen in translation of folio 37, already referred to,) five witnesses 
have been examined (from folio 47 to 50) from among the persons who 
were exactly on the spot where the disturbance happened—three of the five 
being those named by Mr. Peyton in his favor; and not one heard, either at 
the time or since, any such cries and imprecations against anybody: where¬ 
by it is proved that a surprise and deceit has been practised upon the consul 
of the United States : God knows with what intent. 

Upon a review of the whole matter, it is more than sufficiently demon¬ 
strated, that, if the private, Fructuoso Silos, has earned (as in my opinion 
he has, by the sole fault committed by him in the hasty use of his weapon 
at that spot of peace and pure diversion) the correctional penalty of one 
month’s arrest in his barracks, counted from the 2d instant; so, also, must it 
be confessed that Mr. Peyton, particularly, did misbehave with hardihood 
and temerity, giving rise to the precipitancy on the part of the former, al¬ 
ready noticed. Which, I am of opinion, it would be proper that your ex¬ 
cellency communicate, officially, to the commander of the ship Boston, in 
order that the said Mr. Peyton may be suitably admonished to observe, in 
future, the respectful deportment due to sentinels, as is so strongly enjoined 
by the laws of all nations.—Havana, February 16, 1839. 

Most Excellent Sir, Cristoval Zurita. 

A true copy: / 

ALEXANDRO DE ARANA, Secretary. 


80 


[Enclosure No. 7.—Sub-enclosure No. 15.] 

Diagram explanatory of Purser Southall's affray with the sentinel. 


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